THE KURTENBACH SERIES, PART 1 - MARCEL
THE KURTENBACH SERIES, PART 2 - GAMBLER
THE KURTENBACH SERIES, PART 3 - THE FOUNTAIN CREEK GENERAL STORE...
The Fountain Creek General Store of this series is in South Bend Nebraska.
From Dan, "I found the picture archives from the old general store restoration we started in the summer of 1997 upon our purchase and I worked on with my partner until early 2013. These are a series of historical photos of the old general store going back almost to the year it was first built (established in 1872)."
"Along side my design and logistical duties for the building restoration, I was the general store keeper on the weekdays of operation and my partner, who worked a day job in Lincoln, manned the counters on the weekends and holidays. Back behind the soda fountain counter where we served root beer floats from frosted mugs and an assortment of other frozen treats, I set up a workshop and revived an old world trade I picked up in the travels of my youth when I served a fairly comprehensive classical apprenticeship as a custom English Riding Boot Maker."
This is the earliest photo I have. Not much going on in South Bend in 1880 but there were farms and rock quarries in the area, maybe even the railroad by that time. You can see a few of the locals gathered on the front porch for this event.
Same corner in 1980.
The store building with the apartment attached (two smaller yellow trimmed windows). This picture was taken in 2010.
This is an aerial view of the store lot and the adjacent lot take in 2005 before we developed the back lot with a new cased well, a giant garden, including 300 square foot in raised beds and some fruit trees to join the two old apple trees on the east lot line plus some planted berms on the west lot line with river birch and perennials. The Fountain Creek General Store building faces due east.
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The next three were taken when we ran a little soda fountain, old fashioned candy store, antique store in our first 5 years of the restoration of Fountain Creek General Store. We did this from Memorial Day to Labor Day - 6 days a week until the little historical hobby started interfering with the restoration work on the building that restarted every spring.
This is the living room of the adjacent apartment.
This is the stairway to the upstairs part of the apartment over the store proper. In almost two decades, I was never up there. I had my partner, Samantha, take pictures for me as the second floor work progressed.
Upstairs bedroom
