Arthur M. Beymer was already 52 years old when he suffered an abrupt career change due to the Great Fire of October 9,1896, which took his store along with all those along the east side of Davis Avenue. Within a year, rather than rebuild the wooden hardware store he’d been running on the corner of 7th and Davis, his Beymer Block of 700-702 Davis was constructed of brick and rented out.
His first tenant was the well know Andrews Clothing Store which had been in business in Corning since 1881 at another location. It occupied the main floor space from 1897 until 1904 when it moved up the street to the Z.T. Widener building, anchoring that corner until it moved again in 1926. Moving in was the E. M. Cain Clothing Store which shared space with Corie Peregrine Pianos. A shoe repair shop was in the basement. In 1910 J. H. Dunn put in his “Racket Store”, a discount variety shop, while Cain Clothing moved to 613 Davis Ave. J. H. Dunn moved his own store to that same address in 1915 when Cain’s went out of business.
Occupying the main floor from 1915-1917 was the W. C. Rose Billiard Hall with a real estate business and perhaps a harness shop in the basement. The newspapers of the time gleefully recount how the billiard hall refused to give up their lease early and thus delayed the opening of the J. J. Hogan State Bank. The bank lasted until November 4, 1930 when it quietly went into receivership. Damien Hogan, the Secretary of the National Farm Loan Association, used the vacated space for his offices until 1934.
Western Telephone Corporation remodeled the old bank and made a new door in the 7th Street wall to accommodate their switchboard operators and equipment. Interestingly, Corning had had telephone service since 1900 under the name Anderson Telephone Co. Western Telephone became Western Light and Telephone in 1945 due to mergers. It moved to 608 Davis Avenue in September 1960 to obtain the necessary room for equipment for the new rotary dial phones.
Almost immediately, the Corner Cafe took its place and remained a fixture at that location for the next 18 years before another main street anchor, Gadberry’s True Value Hardware, who was next door, bought the space and opened the connecting wall to make a store extension. Ultimately, the wall was rebuilt and Spotlight School of Dance opened in 2002, teaching students until 2017 when the property was sold to Greater Regional Medical Center.
While the main floor was constantly occupied with large businesses, the second floor was likewise constantly busy with smaller businesses such as doctor’s and lawyer’s offices and even apartments to live in. Their ads in the newspapers listed simply “above Cain Clothing” for an address.
Not to be outdone, the rear of the building was also occupied with businesses. A memorable one was Chalmers Cafe. Apparently Jim Chalmers was a native of Scotland who became a US citizen in 1917 and opened his cafe in the 1920’s. When business was slow, the newspapers said that he went outdoors and serenaded passersby with singing about his hot, tasty and inexpensive meals waiting for them just inside. He was remembered to be big, round and boisterous. He sold in 1947 and the cafe became the Economy Cafe until it closed in 1949. Locals recall how the cafe was tiny with no sit down tables or chairs. Somehow Sundstrom Barber Shop, later Means and Sundstrom, then Means and Parcher found space to cut hair from the 1930’s until 1967.
Between the new door put there by the telephone company and the cafe/barbershop were a succession of businesses. Farm Bureau took the barbershop space from 1967 until moving across 7th St. in 2013. Corning Gas Company did business there from 1954 until 1959 when it moved to 404 7th St. The Nook had a brief run from 1976-1977.
All this activity left the building pretty beat up. When Greater Regional bought it, the back wall had collapsed and needed to be reconstructed. Roof trusses were reinforced, sagging stairways were rebuilt, new foundation walls were poured and the front entrance from the basement to the roof was entirely redone to reverse decades of building neglect. Today a solid building that looks a century old stands proudly in the heart of downtown ready to anchor generations of entrepreneurs to come.
