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This building may have been vacant since 1966

09/12/2014 11:15 AM by

While looking up the story of the Pure Oil Company filling station/Triangle Inn Restaurant at 1000 North 25th Street, I also pulled the history of the corner commercial space at 821 North 25th Street. With the entire block of O Street behind it being revamped and word that the building has a future as a retail/restaurant space, it seemed like a good time to find out what used to be there…

The earliest Hill Directory available at Richmond Main Library is from 1902. This record from that year shows that Henry C. Powers was running a grocery store this location.

The available records jump to 1915, at which point the location is still a grocery, though being operated by Henry’s widow Bertie B. Powers.

During the mid-1920s, cleaner and presser J.F.Howard had the space.

By 1931, the corner spot was again a grocery, this time in the hands of Beverly R. Warriner. Mary E. & George W. Wicks ran a grocery in the mid-1930s, Alice L. Cook had the store for at least 1937, and Leonard B. Moss ran a grocery from 1938 to at least 1943.

During the mid-1940s, this was the 25th Street Shoe Shop.

The 1948-1949 issue of the Hill Directory lists the business as Bill’s Confectionary operated by William C. Coke. In what is either an amazing coincidence or a spelling error, the business is listed as Cooke’s Confectionary (run by W.C.Cooke) from at least the early 1950s though the mid-1960s.

A spot check though the available records does not show any occupancy after 1966.

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821 North 25th Street (1950s)

821 North 25th Street (1950s)


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