167 Year Old Building Demolished

This is the Schaefer building in Marine, IL being torn down on April 25, 2016. The building was believed to be built in 1851 by a man named Jerome Carlton. In this building, he ran a shoe and boot making business. In 1854 the Blanke & Bros. General Store was in operation in the south half of the building. Sometime in the late 1800s a small brick addition was added to the south end of the building, and was used as a post office for the town until it later out grew this location. In 1871 L. A. Richardson had his drugstore business there along with Dr. Fisher's office. In 1878 Henry Gehrs opened a general mercantile business in the north half of the building. Eventually Mr. Gehrs' sons Otto and Oscar took over their fathers business and the bottom half of the building. In 1905 it was purchased and operated by Lewis Kolb, and later by his son Leo. In 1940, it was sold to Raymond and Rosalie Schaefer(and daughters Grace and Ramona) who opened the Schaefer Mercantile Co. In 1941, it became Schaefer's Clover Farm Store until it closed. After the death of Raymond Schaefer his daughter Grace operated the business until January 1988. Later, the building was used briefly as a pizza restaurant, and then sat unused for a few years before it was torn down.

(info. taken from "A Walk Through Marine" by Ronald W. Loos)