The Mill Store, featured on today's postcard, notes that it contains
drygoods, shoe and grocery departments. In city directories, the Mill
Store also indicated that it sold hardware here on the southeast of Third
Street and Fourth Avenue. All these items were offered in a space that was
25 feet wide and 125 feet long.
The Mill Store operated under that name between the 1890s and the 1940s.
However it is believed that the business existed even earlier, operating as
a Weyerhauser and Denkmann company store. The W & D Sawmill was only two
blocks away. Much later in its retail life, the Mill Store evolved into a
neighborhood grocery store, eliminating the drygoods, shoes, and hardware.
After the grocery business closed in 1944, the building was used for other
purposes, from a rug cleaner and auto repair shop, to a heating and
airconditioning business. In the 1960s the old store was demolished.
Although we don't have a picture of its exterior, it's easy to imagine what
it looked like. From fire insurance maps, we know that was a two story
frame building with an ice house in back. The upstairs was an apartment
usually occupied by the store owner, as was common in the era. The front of
the building probably had a gable roof, which may have been enhanced by a
more ostentatious false front. Storefront windows would have been as large
as practical -- not so much for display as for interior light.
Although this part of Rock Island is now mostly industrial open space, at
one time it was a very real, very interesting neighborhood. As Rock Island
grew below the bluffs, industrial, business, and residential uses easily
coexisted. As noted earlier, the big sawmill was only two blocks west of
the Mill Store. F.C. A. Denkmann's elegant house was one block west. To
the east was Garnsey Square park. The manufacturing plants of Rock Island
Stove Company and Rock Island Plow Company were within easy walking
distance. There was even a horseradish canning plant nearby. And around it
all were homes.
But it is the interior of this store as we see it on our postcard that is
most intriguing today. Imagine a store not much larger than the deli
department of a modern grocery store that is able to stock just about
everything a family would need. We can see that light from the front
windows, and perhaps smaller windows high on the side wall, were
supplemented by large oil or gas lights suspended from the embossed
tin.ceiling. There are small iron and wood stools in front of some of the
display cases and counters. Behind the display cases are racks of full
shelves. At the upper right, men's shirts are displayed in an alcove framed
by fancy wooden latticework. There is another latticed cupboard on the back
wall of the store as well.
Shoes are arrayed at the left of the aisle near the center of our postcard.
In front of the shoes are what look like bolts of cloth for economical
homemakers to sew their family's garments. Although we don't see evidence
of the groceries, they were probably located at the far back conveniently
near the ice house. And, if the original proprietors used modern marketing
techniques, it would have been good for business if patrons walked past the
"luxury" drygoods department to get to the "essential" groceries.
There is no physical remnant of the Mill Store or even its neighborhood
today. But there is a remaining link to this historic era in Rock Island.
William Thoms operated the Mill Store with the assistance of his son Raymond
between 1903 and 1918. The Mill Store must have provided excellent
experience for young Raymond. He went on to help found the "homegrown"
company that we know as the Thoms-Proestler Company, an enduring business in
our community.
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