I recently acquired a Springs Telephone Directory from January 1941. The purpose was to further decorate my 1939 Tudor cottage with period items...my Bell System 302 and 352 phones were first marketed in 1939. The phone directory makes a nice conversation piece tucked into the phone niche. When perusing the 68 "yellow pages" I was amazed at the number of grocery stores in Colorado Springs in 1941. Chain stores had hardly begun their climb to dominance but were in evidence here: AG (Associated Grocers) and Red & White were early pioneers in co-op buying and selling.
However, even the AG and R/W stores were small, family operated units. My count was 115 separate, distinct locations! Like today stores tended to concentrate along main thoroughfares like Colorado, Pikes Peak, Nevada, Willamette and Cache LaPoudre. (Streetcars served many of these areas when automobiles were less common.
Many old stores have simply vanished--victims of the wrecking ball of progress. In my neighborhood several stores were razed when the Shooks Run parkway project was done-two on Kiowa and one on East Boulder. The former grocery site at 845 E Platte is now a new building housing a laundromat.
I set out with my trusty camera to photograph some of these former groceries. 115 would have constituted a doctoral study so I tried to confine my search north and east of downtown where I live.
You'll note that in my neighborhood ONE and ONLY ONE of the stores remains....the "Little Market" on East Willamette! If you want to see some living history, drop by Chris' market and enjoy some of their home made lunch treats or pick up the things you forgot last weekend at the BIG STORE!
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