Looking back: 1926 big construction year

1926 was a record year for commercial construction with the erection of Sellers and Bartling Furniture, the Raak Harness Shop and the Red Owl Grocery, the Martinson Building, Tidball Drug, and Columbia Clothing.

An August newspaper headline proclaims “Half Million Dollars in Buildings and Improvements in Process of Construction.”

Included in the improvements in the business section are ten new store and business fronts on the ground floor, besides those in the basements and on the second floors.

A complete modern new filling station is also in the downtown district, an automobile painting shop, a practically new city telephone building, the making over of a garage into one the best dance halls in the Northwest, and numerous remodeling and repair jobs throughout the business section.

The city of Brookings also did some notable improvement work. The old telephone building on Williams Street was practically rebuilt and made two stories high instead of one.

A fine new switchboard was also installed, the total expenditure being approximately $20,000 for the entire job.

The conversion of the Wyckoff garage on Fifth Avenue into Brookota Hall was one of the outstanding improvements of the year.

The hall is one of the most beautiful dancing rooms in this section of the country and has excited great admiration.

The total expense was in the neighborhood of $8,000 and Fred Best had the construction contract
A number of fine new residences were also erected in Brookings and the vicinity the past year.