Posted: 9/18/02

Old downtown buildings fall

Cliff Buchan
News Editor

Names like Wallyís Cafe, Valentyís and Bergh Drug are names lost in Forest Lakeís history for the vast majority of area residents today. Now the buildings along N. Lake St. in the cityís downtown which once housed these businesses are gone.

Demolition crews this week are chewing through the century-old buildings on the south end of N. Lake St. Once cleared, the site will be transformed into a new three-story development, Park Place.

Park Place will include a mix of shops, offices and lake front residential condominiums, plus underground parking.

Dolores Peterson, 78, of Forest Lake, watched the demolition on Monday afternoon with mixed feelings. She is the daughter of the late Tony Valenty who started Valentyís in 1905 and later partnered with a brother, George, who ran the bar business.

The Valenty family remained involved in the business until 1954. Tommyís Bar operated most recently in the Valentyís space.

There was a glimmer of sadness in Petersonís eyes as she watched the brick walls fall, but she spoke with a feeling of reality that the time may have arrived for change.

ìIím for progress,î she said, accepting the fate of the old building.

Peterson and her husband, Jack, spoke fondly of the old days when Tony Valenty was the key figure in the business.

The space on the north side of the building was used as a pool hall, barbershop and cigar shop and sold ice cream cones that were craved by Forest Lake kids of all ages. The south end was the bar where hard liquor was served.

The business changed to the Red Mill name in 1954 when Tony Valentyís sons, Dick and Bob got out of the business. The Valenty family logged 49 years of business history.

Many business names that helped put down Forest Lakeís roots as a shopping town were housed in the south end of the cityís main street.

More history

When it closed last year, My Place was the last in a series of restaurants spanning nearly 75 years that operated on the northeast corner of N. Lake St. and E. Broadway Ave.

Wallyís Cafe was the first food establishment to sit on the corner, starting in 1927 under Wally and Marie Frederickson. The building had been used for years as a beer tavern named Stilleís.

In later years, Wallyís Cafe was owned by the Simmonson, Schroeder and Holzshuh families. In the 1970s it was the Village Inn under Wally and Sylvia Anderson and later Terry Lee and Steve Bervin.

Other businesses operated in the space north of Wallyís Cafe in an area which was a dining room for My Place. In the early years it was used by Struble Insurance which fronted the photo studio of Nick Mittsoff.

In the early years, the VerBout Financial Services office was home to Dr. Ward Lewis Sr. for a chiropractic office and Dr. J.A. Poirier, a medical doctor.

One door north in the Colonial Liquor Store space was the Bergh Drug Store business, owned by F. C. Bergh who provided a popular soda fountain to the business district.

On the north side of the Valenty businesses came another longtime fixture on the east side of N. Lake St., Engquist Hardware. Owner Bill Engquist and a brother, Vic, ran the business from 1917 to 1967 in what was most recently the Forest Lakes Embroidery space.

The Park Place development will stop at the Van Wirt Building which houses the Schwarten Chiropractic Clinic. The city through its Economic Development Authority, has agreed to buy the Schwarten property but it will not be part of the current project.

The Park Place developers initially proposed a larger three-story project that would have continued north to the Franklin Building.

Negotiations were not successful this spring as the developers tried to acquire the Schwarten property and the Schneller buildings which house Dona-Leís Cafe and the Balloon Shop. A second phase could follow next year, the developers have indicated.

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