This post is part of a collection of posts written in 2016 for Glenwood’s 150 year celebration. To see the map and full list of locations included in the walking tour, click here.
Conrad Building – Now part of the Village Inn
Built in 1907 on the east side of Franklin Street (21 South Franklin Street) in the middle of the block between the alley and Green Street (Second Avenue SE)
Tenants included: Goodrich Drug Company 1907-1911, McMillan Restaurant 1914-?, Berry’s Undertaking Parlor – 1920, Swanson Bakery 1921-1927, Boston Cafe 1927-1947, Setter Drug 1948 – 1963, and the Glenwood Jaycee Hall. It is currently part of the Village Inn / Village Cafe and often used as a meeting room
Probably the most famous business to use the Building was Swanson Bakery. Charles Swanson took over the baking department in the basement of the Rogers Hotel in 1914. Ten years later his bakery building on First Avenue SE was baking 6,500 loaves daily shipping to 36 towns in the area. The flour bins on the second floor could hold 500 barrels of flour. By 1929 Swanson’s Sonny Boy Bread was distributed to 125 towns in three states, and was the first to market sliced bread in this region. It closed in 1941.
