Gwinner’s Cafe Then and Now

504 N Second Avenue

Gwinner’s Cafe was a Dodge City institution for decades. You may notice the Gwinner Building on Second Avenue south of Fidelity State Bank displays the year 1951 on its parapet. That seems kind of odd given the ages of the surrounding structures. So what was the deal? Amazingly, the county website shows this building was constructed in 1920. I don’t mean to be a jerk but…and there’s always a but…how?

This particular lot was slow to be developed. The block consisted of frame dwellings in 1884 and by 1887, the lot was empty. And that’s how it sat for about two decades. The first commercial structure to appear at 504 Second Avenue on a Sanborn Fire Insurance Map was a confectionery in 1911.

It turns out John Felkel and Ira Beck started the Palace of Sweets in the “new” Hoover Building just north of the Bee Hive in the Fall of 1907. Felkel had worked at the City Bakery for several years prior to this.

The Hoover Building also had a north room at 506 Second Avenue, which housed a drug store started by R. C. Mershon of Stafford the same month. Because of the way the block appears now, it’s hard to visualize the two sharing more than a common wall. By August of 1909, the drug store had been purchased by George D Cochran.

Ira Beck exited the partnership by April of 1910 leaving John Felkel as the sole proprietor. It seems a little odd to advertise oysters with candies and ice cream but the US hadn’t completely recovered from its oyster obsession in 1910.

Although it wasn’t heavily advertised as a dining establishment, The Palace of Sweets served lunch “at all hours.”

Martin M Gwinner built a bakery on Fourth Avenue in the Summer of 1888 when he was 25 years old. The City Bakery was located just north of J. H. Crawford’s grocery store. He later moved the business to Chestnut Street. So remember, John Felkel got his start working for Mr. Gwinner at City Bakery. This copy is a hot mess but it explains how the business became Gwinner’s Palace of Sweets.

The article failed to explain that the bakery side of the operation was sold to the Sturgeon brothers and the confectionery portion was sold to Harry Grose.

It’s really difficult to find good depictions of the building as it appeared during that time but this ad helps. It’s absolutely bonkers to compare this image to the current view.

Anyway, Gwinner’s Palace of Sweets did steady business for a good long while.

Martin’s son, Donald, worked at the Palace of Sweets after college. Donald was a talented clarinetist, who played with the Dodge City Cowboy Band for a time. Around 1924, the shop began advertising as simply Gwinner’s with a new logo.

The 1926 Sanborn is kind of interesting because it added 504 1/2 Second Avenue. I believe the second floor of the south end housed the Unique barber shop and beauty parlor, which was purchased by Edward Craig and Jack Cahoon (both formerly of the Pioneer Barber Shop) in 1926. The previous owner was C. O. Grounds. So maybe a building permit was issued in 1920, which is what the county is going by. At any rate, the Perfect Bakery occupied the north end of the building at that time.

I really like this postcard because in addition to the Gwinner sign, it also includes the First National Bank Building before the appearance of their first painted sign where the Stan Herd mural is now.

This photo of the Cochran Building shows just a tiny bit of the original Gwinner Building to the left. It had a lot more detail than the current utilitarian structure.

Before restaurants started ordering everything premade from Sysco and US Foods, they actually cooked stuff!

Sweetbriar Shops, Inc. was founded in Colorado in 1931 by Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Barron and they began with three stores. The chain incorporated in each of the various states in which they operated and they formed The Sweetbriar Shops, Inc. in Kansas on February 6, 1935. The Dodge City store occupied the north end of the building at 506 N Second Avenue for several years.

This photo from 1939 shows the bank on the corner, Sweetbriar one door south, and Gwinner’s to the far right. I’m not sure when it happened but it’s clear that the building was split into separate parcels with different owners. I believe Martin Gwinner only bought the south end.

This photo from just a little later, shows the Gwinner sign out front as well as the first painted sign at First National Bank. You can also see the Hiram T Burr advertisement on the old Post Office, which has been covered up for several decades by a Texaco sign.

It’s unclear when Martin finally retired for real but the Gwinner-Aten Cafe, Inc. was formed on March 8, 1944. Donald’s sister, Grace, was married to Clarence Aten and I’m not sure which of them was Donald’s partner…maybe both.

Martin died in November of 1945 at the age of 82 and his widow, Carrie Blackburn Gwinner, retained ownership of the building. The cafe continued until disaster struck in 1950.

Anyone who knows anything about Dodge City knows full well that this was not, in fact, the worst outbreak of fires in the town’s history but it is probably the worst example of arson here. As of September 21, there was “no trace” of the arsonist. Sweetbriar was moved into a temporary space at Hutton Electric at 505 First Avenue while their store was rebuilt. There were no plans for the continuation of Gwinner’s Cafe in Dodge City.

Construction of the new building was underway by April of 1951. Meanwhile, the Sweetbriar chain was expanding in Kansas with the Great Bend store opening in 1953.

Carrie Gwinner died in September of 1953 at the age of 89 and is buried next to Martin at Maple Grove Cemetery in Dodge. Donald moved to Colorado but his sister and her husband stayed in Dodge.

The image below shows Fidelity State Bank on the corner with the new expansion in the former Sweetbriar spot. I was so excited to find this one because it hasn’t looked like this in my lifetime.

And here is how the new Sweetbriar store looked at that time.

In the mid-1970s, the Sweetbriar chain headquartered in Denver consisted of 65 stores in roughly 14 western states. I believe the Hutchinson store opened in February of 1970. They even had their own branded store charge card as early as 1972.

This photo shows the southward expansion of Fidelity and Sweetbriar’s new home in the old Palace of Sweets location. You will notice the windows had been removed from the new Fidelity building by the time it was taken.

I only have vague memories of Sweetbriar and that’s apparently because they went out of business in 1984 or 1985, with their last annual report being filed in Kansas for the year ending December 31, 1984. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong but I believe Sweetbriar moved to Village Square Mall a few years before the store closed.

There have been many, many establishments in the old Gwinner Cafe since Sweetbriar moved. The Street View on Google Maps will take you back to 2007. The building currently looks much better than it did from 2007 to 2018!

It is currently occupied by my studio and their website has quite a few interior photos. The studio is located upstairs in the big room and the exposed brick is amazing.

I’m not sure if the arsonist was ever caught but now we know why there’s such a young building on that old block.

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