STAFF NOTE: One Piece of Paper Brings Our HQ’s Sweet History Full Circle
a century-old document returns home to Volume One’s historic building
With our office and store inside an obviously historic building in downtown, we often get questions in The Local Store about the history of 205 N. Dewey St. While the structure has housed many things – an architecture office, general contractor office, printing company, and even briefly an early version of the Chippewa Valley Museum – the most notable and fun inhabitant of the building was its very first: a candy factory. The R.L. Meader Confectioners were located in the building since it was first built in 1882, and lasted well into the first few decades of the 1900s. To honor this past, the store offers a revival candy line of caramels, chocolates, and more under the Dewey Street Candy Company label.
Thanks to the efforts of a friend of mine, we recently came into possession of an original invoice for candy delivered from R.L. Meader to the Shell Lake Mercantile in 1918 for items including Licorice Drops, Butter Suckers, Crystal Coco Caramels, and more. As I brought the invoice back into the building, it was fun to consider it had been 106 years since that page had last been inside these walls. But then it’s also fun to turn around and wonder if any basic item from The Local Store or Volume One – or really any current endeavor of our community – will come into the hands of others 100 years from now and be regarded as an interesting artifact of our past. Maybe it’s time for a new community time capsule: What would you put in it?
