111 E. Main Rickert's Confectionery

This building was a one-story high wood building squeezed between two 2-story buildings. William Rickert’s Confectionery opened in his new headquarters at 111 E. Main Street on the bridge in 1884. Previously, he had been in the Old Wooden Row, a block of buildings on the south side of Main Street between Monroe and Washington Streets roughly where MI Hometown Furnishings is today.

Rickert’s Confectionery operated at 111 E. Main for twenty-one years until the fire of 1905. Although his building was not destroyed because the fire was stopped before it reached it, he and friends moved everything out onto the street. He had a loss of $200 of product during the quick moving out process. One month later, Frank Spagnula purchased this building along with 113 E. Main, adjoining to the east and planned to use both storefronts for his own confectionery business.

A Sanborn fire insurance map shows this site was a barber shop in 1910 and a tire repair shop in 1918. In 1943, it is listed as Voyzey’s Barber shop. It was a dress shop called the Fashion Box in the 1950s but was vacant at the time of the fire of 1958.

This building was one of seven destroyed by fire on January 2, 1958. All of the buildings from the old Post Office (101 E. Main) east to The Levee Restaurant (119 E. Main) were destroyed. Myron Henry was the owner of the confectionery building and three others at the time of the fire.

Images:

Rickert’s Confectionery was located where the Ice Cream sign hangs, 1884-1905.

Photo of the buildings destroyed in the 1958 fire. There is a pick-up parked in front of Rickert’s and several people gathered. The Showboat stands can be seen in the background.
​
Advertisement for The Fashion Box found in a school newsletter, 1952.