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Re-Opening May 25th, 2024

Hours

Open Fridays & Saturdays 1 pm - 5 pm

History

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From 1912 to 1922, the museum’s marble soda fountain was used at Dor Smith’s, an ice cream parlor and tobacco shop, located at 124 S Barstow St, Eau Claire. In 1922, Alfred Bjerke bought it and moved it to his drug store in Fall Creek.

Bjerke’s timing was impeccable. Ice cream parlors flourished during Prohibition as socially acceptable gathering places. The Bjerke family used the fountain for the next half-century and donated it to the Chippewa Valley Museum in 1977.

    Interior of Bjerke Drug Store, 1958. The museum’s marble soda fountain can be seen on the right side

    South Barstow street, downtown Eau Claire, showing Dor Smith at the north end of the block,1925.

    Lucille Hoesley taking a break while working at the ice cream parlor Dor Smith, late 1920s.

    Bjerke Drug Store, Fall Creek, 1958.

    Alfred Bjerke standing outside his newly opened drug store in Fall Creek, 1922.