Merrillville Then and Now: Stoltz's Store

(Click on images to enlarge)
Top image courtesy of the Merrillville/Ross Township Historical Society.

No date on the earlier photo, but by the looks of that truck, maybe 1940s?

The original building still stands at 40 W. 73rd Ave. It went up in 1905, according to Jan Clemens' A Pictorial History of Merrillville, as a combined store and home when John and Margaret (Gerlach) Stoltz went into the grocery business in partnership with her brother, Carl Gerlach. The Stoltzes later bought out Carl's interest and operated the business on their own. After John Stoltz died in 1945, Margaret continued the business, with the help of her daughter and son-in-law, Mabel and Joe Derrenbacker, for another five years.

Per Jan Clemens:

The Stoltz store advertised fresh meat — a claim that was a bit of an understatement, for upon request for chicken, Margaret would go out back, kill a bird, come in carrying it with the blood still flowing from the headless fowl. On one occasion a customer good-naturedly inquired, "Are you sure it's fresh?" The fresh meat advertisement also included beef which Margaret butchered by herself in the rear of the shop.

In 1950 Margaret's family sold their building and business to Ray Bohne of Gary.

The Merrillville/Ross Township Historical Society has a couple nice photos of the interior of the Stoltz store. According to handwritten notes on the back, these photos date to circa 1917; in the first one, you will notice a calendar showing the month of January that is consistent with 1920 (or 1913).


Left to right: Margaret Stoltz, unknown, Alice Mundell, unknown, and John Stoltz.


Left to right: Mabel Derrenbacker, Margaret Stoltz, and Anna Schmitz.