| Additional Information: | Entire store front covered by shingling along second floor and brick veneer along first.
Robert B. Wentworth, a grian dealer, constructed a 40 by 60 foot and 50 foot high, timber frame grain elevator in 1862. It remains located southeast of the canal at 131 E. Mullett (49/20) (Wisconsin State Register 1862 [9/20: 3/1]) It possessed a storage capacity of 4000 bushels. By the 1870s, he operated the elevator as Wentworth, McGregor and Company. In addition, he maintained a shipping company, the Portage and Green Bay Transportation Company, to move grain and freight by steamboars between Portage and Watertown, Berlin, and Green Bay between 1864-1873. A railroad side track also extended to his elevator in 1871. His adjacent warehouses stored coal, seed, and lumber. In 1889, W.G. Gault and Sons owned the feel mill. Irving W. YOrk purchased the elevator about 1890. With his brother George E. York, he ran the Portage Roller Mills: "...Grain Elevator and Grain Dealers, manufactures of and dealer in high grades of wheat. Also proprietos of the Portage Electirc Light and Power Company" (Polk R.L. & Co. 1890). York maintained his mill store which carried flour,feed, and grain at 117 W. Cook (56/17) from shortly prior to 1901 through 1937. By 1905, Robert E. York joined the firm, and by 1919, George E. and Robert E. York ran the company. Robert E. York continued to operate the feed and grain enterprise under the name of I.W. York Company. Sometime between 1918 and 1929, the company added the adjacent, one story, frame feed warehouse now attached to the elevator at 131 E. Mullett. Robert York sold the ocmpany in 1946 tp Simmuside Hatcheries. The elevator is currently owned by Vita-Plus Corporation of Madison. The I.W. York Company also maintained a flour mill and warehouse at Jefferson and Emmett along the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul tracks (Butterfield 1880: 635, 934, Register-Democrat 9/3/1908; 12/11-18/1923; Democrat 7/30/1897; Portage Daily Register 12/23/89; 9/3/09; 5/14/1914; 8/10/1914; Rugen 1868; Hoffman and Hyer 1899; Portage Area Chamber of commerce n.d.; Wisconsin Necrology, vol. 14: 90).
Loid Atkinson's Atkinson Federated Store was established as a local department store at 117 W. Cook in 1937. The store underwent expansion and remodeling in 1946 when a second floor and balcony were place in the building (Portage Daily Register 7/2/19523: 22; 4/19/75).
Between 108 and 1929, A. and Charles Wilkie located at 117 W. Cook. A millinery occupied the building in 1894.
117 W. Cook operated as a saloon by 1894 through 1918. Henry Epstein and the henry Epstein Estate which represented one of the local breweries owned the building through 1915. Epstein, Haertel, and Eulberg all owned retail buildings in which they established saloons to sell their product. 1178 W. Cook is probably one example. |
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| Bibliographic References: | 1929: Store
1918: Saloon, flour and Feed and electric light office
1910: saloon, flour and feed
1901: Saloon; flour and feed
1894: saloon; millinery
1889: frame grocery store (different building)
Columbia Co. Treasurer 1863-
1920-1930: Mary Helmann
1905-1915: Henry Epstein est.
1890-1900: Henry Epstein
1876-1890: H.L. Kind
The assessment variation between 1890 and 1891 suggests it construction at that time. The property then changed hands from Kind to Epstein.
Directories:
1955: (117) Atkinson's Store (Johnson Printing Co.)
1937: (117)I.W. York & Co., mill store (Commonwealth Telephone Co.)
1929: (117) I.W. York & Co. feed, second: Wilkie, tailor (Smith-Bauman Directory Co.)
1917-18: (117) I.W. York and Co., flour (Farrell)
1910: (117) I.W. York and Co. (G.E. and R.E.), millers (Voshardt)
1908-09: (117) I.W. York & Co., flour, feed and grain
1890: I.W. York & Co., in business as flour and feed operation.
No reference to a saloon being in the building was located. |
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