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If you can remember the Midget Lunch,
middle of the north side of Hartford’s Main Street, you will also have a
mental picture of Van Liere’s Shoe Repair, which was just to the east. That
building started life way back in the 19th century on North Center Street.
Located on the west side right where the water
tower now stands, it was a small saloon owned and operated by one George
Harley. The accompanying picture shows George sitting out in front with
his old white dog. The date: 1877.
This was not a raucous place, just a little
bar where a man could stop in and get a quick beer on his way home from
work. George had a big, old white dog of dubious parentage, not fierce, and
he used to hang around waiting for a handout.
Back in the day, one feature of the
old-time saloon was the “free lunch.” This usually consisted of hard-boiled
eggs (sometimes pickled eggs), sandwiches, etc. If a customer bought a
stein, he was welcome to partake of the lunch items. The dog loved this and
was also known to lap up a bowl of beer if someone offered it to him. The
rest of the time he sprawled out… asleep. All in all, a quiet little place;
and in the rooms above, the Masonic Lodge held its meetings.
But George Harley wanted to be closer to the
action, so he had the whole building moved around to the northwest corner
of Main and Center streets. At the new location, business did pick up. He
was now right on the main four corners, northwest side.
Across the street to the east stood a store owned
by Henry L. Gleason. This man was an enterprising merchant, who had started
a meat market there and gradually added new lines of merchandise. He also
took into partnership two ladies who worked for him, the misses Lee and
Gertie Smith.
Gleason bought Harley’s old saloon and moved it down to
its last location, two doors east of the theater. Then he built a handsome
new two-story brick building on that corner and moved in. There he
continued in
 business
until 1898 when he sold the whole business to F.W. Hubbard and Co, who
occupied the building for any years thereafter. It finally became
Abrams’ store. In the rooms above were held Masonic and Eastern Star
meetings. I can remember potluck dinners there when I was a wee lad. In its
last reincarnation it became a haven for persons desiring to have a tattoo…
or to buy some kind of exotic birds. There it stands today… empty and
forlorn, with American flags hanging in the downstairs windows and pigeons
roosting on its upper parts and trying to get in through the boarded-up
windows.
The saloon was now the Kitzmiller Battery & Tire Shop.
Just west of it was Hartford’s popular Midget lunch, owned by Mr. and Mrs.
Charles Abbott. On November 11, 1929, they had gone to Florida on vacation,
leaving Mr. and Mrs. Harry Strode to manage the lunchroom. The Kitzmillers
were spending the Armistice Day weekend in Otsego. On that quiet day,
Allen Timmons had just come into the restaurant and ordered a hamburger.
The only other customer was Marvin Whitmore. Harry Strode came out into the
kitchen where his wife was on duty. Before the grill could be heated up,
the gasoline tank that provided fuel had to be filled. Harry did this but
did not notice that some gasoline had run under the stove. When he applied
a match, it immediately burst into flames, driving them from the kitchen.
They called the Hartford Fire Department, but the restaurant was almost a
total loss. Flames spread so quickly that the Kitzmiller building was
becoming involved. Bystanders quickly carried out the unfortunate family’s
belongings from the upstairs living quarters. Equipment and stock in the
store below were mostly ruined by water and smoke, but the building was
saved. When the stubborn flames were totally extinguished, one family had
completely lost its business (the Midget) and the other had theirs mostly
ruined. I can remember walking along Main Street with my father. I was just
a little kid and looked with horror at the blackened open front of the
former restaurant. That gaping dark hole frightened me… it is still clear
in my mind’s eye.
The Midget was rebuilt better than ever, and the old George Harley saloon
was repaired and became functional again. It was probably at this time that
Kitzmillers moved their battery and tire shop to the old Gleason
building on the northeast corner of Main and N. Center. I can remember
they had a gas pump out in front about that time.
Sometime after this, Mr. Van Liere began his successful shoe repair shop in
what had started out as a saloon, then became a harness shop, after that
served the needs of the new horseless carriage, and finally became a repair
business for Hartfordites who wanted to stop in and save their soles! |
