Who says Corner Confections have to be pretty? I’m sure this was once a lovely building. It was built in 1931, and hints of Art Deco shine through the ham-handed application of the slipcover, cinderblocks, and graffiti-removal.
Like this building, the neighborhood immediately around it once had much more going on. Next door on Milwaukee, a movie palace, the Harding, stood until demolished in 1963 (the same year a Walgreens opened up in this corner). Across Spaulding, there was a bowling alley, but it burned in 1968. (This was the bowling alley where the truant William Gebhardt worked.) Still, while the neighborhood might have lost some beautiful buildings, small-scale retail has always been, and continues to be, the name of the game here.
I believe this was also the location of one of your favorite venues, the Mopery.
Yep, it was. I didn’t mention it in the post as I wasn’t aware it had closed. I won’t miss it, but I didn’t want to get them in trouble, either.