Sweets attracted teens to downtown hangouts
| By DENNIS NARTKER KENDALLVILLE — The Olympia Sweet Shop, the Palace of Sweets, Valenti’s Candy Store and the Central Drug Store were four favorite downtown Kendallville teen hangouts over the years. George Vlahakis operated the Olympia Sweet Shop in the 1920s at 109 S. Main St. (now Stroman’s Electronics). Before the sweet shop it was William Swogger’s Grocery, U.C. Brouse Grocery and John Hendley’s jewelry store. Harold Smith took over the sweet shop in 1945. Ken Stark operated a Baskin-Robbins ice cream shop next door at 107 S. Main St. for many years before Jeff Smith, Harold Smith’s son, purchased that building in 1996 and restored its original name, Olympia Sweet Shop. He now sells sandwiches, soups and ice cream desserts. Vlahakis lived above his shop, recalls Jean Cochard, a common practice for many downtown merchants. Mary Parker of Kendallville has fond memories of the Greek shop owner. Her father drove a bus between Fort Wayne and Kalamazoo, Mich., for Central Coach Lines in the late 1930s and early 1940s. The bus stop was in front of the Olympia. Parker would stand inside the store by the door waiting for the bus and her father. “Mr. Vlahakis was very kind. He would give me a big chunk of milk chocolate from a display filled with candy,” she said. Every kid growing up in Kendallville in the 1950s and 1960s remembers the Palace of Sweets at 215 S. Main St. in what was called the Deibele building after its builder, John Deibele. He constructed the three-story, 180-foot-long building in 1878 and operated a hardware store before Frank Fields purchased the building for a tavern. From 1910 to 1912 it was fruit store, then a saloon. Ferris Shaffer owned the building for several years in the 1920s before selling it to Kenneth Blech in 1933. The Deibele building also housed C&D Arcade, This ’n That Shoppe and The Timekeeper. The building now houses Kropp Insurance, The Floor Store, Paul’s Pub and the vacant Timekeeper site, which was the location for Palace of Sweets. Kenny Blech operated the Palace of Sweets through the 1950s until his retirement in 1975 and became one of downtown’s truly unique but admired characters. His front windows often featured desserts and molded models of his ice cream specialties, enticing children to drag their weary parents inside for a treat. The soda fountain was on the left and a taffy pulling machine in a glass case was on the right inside the business. At the back were vinyl-cushioned seats in booths. At the back was a juke box and a small, tiled dance floor. Teens often congregated in the booths, flipping through the automatic record selector, drinking lemon phosphates, Cokes and sodas. Jean Cochard remembers hanging out at the Palace in the 1930s and 1940s when Mike Canzier, then Bob Lehner and later Blech were proprietors. “We would sit all evening sipping one Cherry Coke much to the consternation of the proprietor,” she said. “We would dance in the back room.” Dressed in his white apron, sometimes even wearing a white cap, “Kenny” was a mentor to thousands of teens who hung out at “The Palace” to listen to music, dance or enjoy a hamburger after school. “It was the place to eat greasy cheeseburgers,” writes Pam Bailey of Kendallville. She remembers watching Blech make candy, hot fudge topping and ice cream. |
 BACK TO THE PALACE
— The former Palace
of Sweets, located at 215 S. Main St., more recently the
Timekeeper store, will reopen later this month as Palace
of Sweet Treasures. It will become an antique and
collectibles store. Owners are Terry Wagner and Les
Lottes. Wagner’s wife, Amanda, will operate it. |
 Beautiful
etchings are visible above the old Palace of Sweets
building at 215 S. Main St. |
Phil W. Kaufman, in his book “In
the Beginning: Memories of an Indiana Boyhood,”
fondly recalls his boyhood experiences in his
father’s Central Drug Store at 124 S. Main St. that
became White’s Central Drug Store, then
Chronister’s Central Drug Store. “Like all the other stores in the business district, Central Drug Store was long and narrow,” Kaufman wrote. “The store’s floor was bare wood, which had to be oiled regularly to treat the wood. This also made it easier to sweep with the push broom.” The store had a soda fountain and six tables and chairs. Booths were installed later. Customers walked passed the drug store items and gifts to get to the soda fountain, grill, tables and booths. “It was the place to go for great Jolly Roger sandwiches, fries and vanilla Cokes,” recalls Anita Hess of Kendallville, who spent time there with her friends in the 1960s when it was Chronister’s Central Drug Store. “Remember the green rivers?” she asked. Arlene (Ramsy) Roberts of Kendallville also remembers drinking green rivers at Chronister’s Central Drug Store. |
| In the late 1950s, teen
activity moved to the Youth Center on Iddings Street for
dances and recreational games, and to the Redwood
Drive-in (now Preferred Auto), A&W Drive-in (now
Pizza Hut), Dairy Queen on U.S. 6 and Kelsey’s
Drive-in (now Community State Bank) at the intersection
of North Riley Street and U.S. 6. All of them are gone
except Dairy Queen. Teens also moved to the shopping centers to buy their clothes, food and school supplies. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, coffee houses sprang up in the downtown business district to attract young people. Arcade shops opened in the 1980s downtown, along with video stores, but competition from shopping mall recreation centers forced these businesses to close. Main Street today, as it was 30 years ago, is the main drag for cruising on summer weekends. Young people find enjoyment driving south on Main through the business district to Diamond Street, then turning around for a northbound trek to U.S. 6. |
 BAND CONCERTS — Weekly free band concerts were held in Kendallville in the 1930s in the band shell, shown in background, located at the southeast corner of West William and Orchard streets about a block west of Main Street. This 1933 photo contributed by Pat Carteaux shows Mary Jo Carteaux in a carriage. |
 INDIANS IN KENDALLVILLE — This 1914 photo shows American Indians on parade in the 100 block of North Main Street in Kendallville as part of “Buffalo Bill” Cody’s Wild West Show. (Photo by Harry Ziebell and contributed by Margie Misselhorn) |
