The old Main Street grocery store in Coggon was demolished this winter to make room for a new pocket park. The building was built around 1914 and had numerous owners over nine decades of business.
The decision to demolish the building came after the grocery store was deemed beyond repair. The demolition process started after professionals removed asbestos from the old grocery store.
The old grocery store was leveled to make room for a new pocket park. The pocket park is still in the final project stages, deciding the layout and landscaping. It will not be an open grassy area but more of a metro/urban feeling park.
The old Main Street grocery store in Coggon was demolished this winter to make room for a new pocket park. The building was built around 1914 and had numerous owners over nine decades of business.
The decision to demolish the building came after the grocery store was deemed beyond repair. The demolition process started after professionals removed asbestos from the old grocery store.
The old grocery store was leveled to make room for a new pocket park. The pocket park is still in the final project stages, deciding the layout and landscaping. It will not be an open grassy area but more of a metro/urban feeling park.
Coggon’s old grocery store on Main Street was demolished this winter to make room for a new pocket park. The old grocery store was located at 121 E. Main St. and has been vacant for years. The building was falling in and had severely deteriorated with no hope of being remodeled or restored.
The Coggon Community Memorial Foundation received a large donation from Larry and Debbie Pillard, formerly of Coggon, of over $500,000 to the historical renovations in 2021. With the help of the donation, the memorial foundation funded the purchase of the grocery store, giving ownership to the City of Coggon, removed asbestos, and demolished the building.
“I think everybody was glad to see that building come down because it has been sitting there and an eyesore,” said Foundation Secretary/Treasurer Mary L. Henderson.
The grocery store was built by Charlie Sheldon around 1914 and was purchased by Ralph Pillard Drexler. Drexler finished the building and operated R. P. Drexler General Store from 1914-45.
Mary’s father, Robert Henderson, 101, of Coggon, worked at the store when Drexler starting at age 14 until he finished business school and started working at a local bank. His uncle was the owner, and he spent a decade at the store as a part-time employee, working after school and on weekends filling customers’ orders.
Robert remembers all the merchandise came in 100 pounds of bulk product. He said the customers would come in, hand him a list of their needs, and he would individually bag the quantities. Robert also helped carry out groceries for customers and did odd jobs for his uncle. His wage at the time was $1 a week, and after asking for a raise, he was able to received $2 per week.
“You almost lived with a family by working in the store because you knew what they bought,” said Robert. “It was an interesting time.”
After 1945, many other owners followed, including Mel Biederman, Floyd and Margaret Brown, Kirby White, David and Judy Kerr, Dustin Pflughaupt and Don and Kathy McCurdy, over a span of 60 years.
Currently, the lot will be turned into a pocket park, after Coggon’s Historical Hall, adjacent to the lot, is finished with tuckpointing on the outside walls. The Historical Hall is also going through its own building renovations. Mary said it has been a slow process, but the memorial foundation wants to do the project the right way, so it lasts another 100 years.
“It is going to be a really nice project once it is done,” said Mary. “I think it is giving Coggon a boost that it really needed.”
Coggon Mayor Travis Beckman said it is sad to lose another Main Street building, but it was a blessing from the Pillards and the Memorial Foundation to help fill that void and utilize the space.
“(Larry) still loves his roots. He still loves Coggon, and he has been very generous,” said Mary. “He has been so helpful to Coggon through the years.”
The city is planning on not making it another green space but a space to have the aesthetics of a metro/urban pocket park, including a staging area for music or movie events. Once the outside renovation is completed around the Historical Hall, dirt work on the pocket park will begin.
“It will be nice once it is there,” said Beckman. “It will give the people of Coggon something new.”
Beckman hopes that the pocket park is just the tip of the iceberg to create a bright future and vision of re-invigorated Coggon’s Main Street.
