When I published a piece on Hirsch’s Midtown, formerly known as Hirsch Bros. No. 1, and the establishment of Hirsch Bros. No. 2 as Hirsch’s Northtown, I mentioned that I didn’t think I had ever been in the Mill Street and Main Street store.
Susan Fee Means commented on Facebook, “Ken – if you’d ever been to The Mule Lip, across from the old shoe factory on Main St, then you’d been to the Hirsch #2 store. Or at least the building.”
I led a sheltered life. I was never in The Mule Lip or its reincarnation as Margarita Mama’s. Now that the casino has leveled that area, I guess I missed my chance.
[Note: we made it as far as Lake City, Fla., tonight. I’m staying in a nice Comfort Suites I’ve stayed at before. I pulled in shortly before midnight after driving through moderate to heavy rain most of the day. The desk clerk gave me her “Your eyes sure are bloodshot super discount” that she said was even better than the alphabet soup list of names I usually give her.]
Ah… the Mule Lip…and befroe that is was the Curve INN. My dad painted a beer sign on the Curve Inn in the 1940’s….I never knew it was Hirches store….of course of was probably not looking for notions at that age of my life.
I also remember, when I was mere child, a bar one block north at Pearl & Main. Not sure the name.
Contrary to Terry Hopkins, I believe the Curve Inn was on the east side of Main Street on the south side of Mill Street. After Hirsch’s, I believe the store became Fairway Market #2, with Fairway Market #1 being on the corner of Main and Fifth Streets. As we can see the Mule Lip is a brick structure and if I recall correctly the Curve Inn was just a wood frame structure. Thanks Ken for your wonderful pictures and comments of our past.
Larry Sadler
I was told the No. 2 store’s main customer base was river/barge traffic, but I don’t remember this location ever being open. I could probably do a Southeast Missourian search, but if anyone knows when it closed, please share the info.
Also, to family it was always called the “No. 2 Store” and never referred to as “Hirsch’s Northtown.” I don’t remember “Midtown,” either, though – I think the store was “Hirsch’s Thriftway” by the time I was old enough to pay attention.
Good memory Larry. You got it exactly right. There was also a small “Drug” store across the streed, East, of Fairway Market #1. With this cluster of businesses it was seldom necessary to leave the neighborhood. This was the case with me. My world was a small but happy one in the Red Star District. My mother named me Dickie Ray and I thought it odd that the lady cashier at the Fairway Market was also called Dickie. She kept a metal rack with manilla cards in it that she used to keep track of the customers that traded there on credit.
Here are historical photos and background on Hirsch Brothers stores:
http://www.semissourian.com/blogs/flynch/entry/48287
Thank you, Fred. I hadn’t ever seen a picture of the No. 2 store with Hirsch signage on the building. Bonus that the picture was taken during a flood!
Possible point of interest to any genealogy geeks like me: Phil Lind, the only man identified in the employee picture, was married to Bertha Meystedt, sister to Rosa (Mrs. Will) Hirsch.
I also love that in one of the Midtown store pictures you can sort of see the old Will Hirsch home, razed before I was born.
I have some wonderfu memories of the Main and Mill Street location. Mr fee was one of the nicest men I think I ever met. He teased me a lot but also tole me that you taase people you like because you did not wat to waste you time on the other people and they would probably just get mad if you did teast them. i even enjyed trying to help with sand baggin and clean up before and after the old Mississippi would flood the area. I also did the same thing trying to protect our home on North Main. Hard work and I thought it was fun because of the people I was helping, famly and friends. The area around main and Mill still has many wonderful memories for me to reflect back on. I remember the Steinhoff family that lived next door to us. Barbarba Blanchard woh was my best friend for years. The Old Mill Street Pentecost Church, which was my first exposure to a church and started my life timeof living a christian life. And I wil never forget all my class mates that lived at the top of the hill and several of us went from first grade through the 12th at central We also had some tremendous teachers that I will never forget. Akk my cousins lived close together, within a 2 block area. When i look back at my life I realize how blessed i have been to have been reared in cape and to have even lived in the area of town I did.
My fingers and my brain do not work together when I am typing. So sorry but maybe you can make out what I meant to say.
Thank you for these pics. My dad was William G Hirsch, son of George W. Hirsch whose dad, I think, opened the two stores in Cape. I recently visited the clothing store building which, at that time, 2001, was a flower store of some sort. Liz
It was definitely Fairway Market # 2. I used to go in the back door of the store and walk through the stock room to the main part of the store and buy popsicles for 6 cents in the early 1960s. My grandma lived at 701 N Spanish which was the corner of Mill Street and North Spanish. Her house faced the back parking lot for the store. That location is now part of the casino.
what other businesses were at the old Hirch’s Northtown building on Main street. I recall it being several bars, was one of the bar names the Black Diamond?