05/17/2026
Sunday Showcase
Each Sunday afternoon, the Crystal Lake Historical Society will showcase a piece of Crystal Lake history to our Facebook followers.
Dr. Emory Ballou and his Downtown Legacy: Part IV
In 1876, the same year L.D. Lincoln became the village of Nunda’s street commissioner, he bought the corner lot at Woodstock and Williams streets. Lincoln sold that property to Henry Simes, a blacksmith, in October 1881 and it was immediately sold again to G.H. Clayson of the pickle factory. Clayson sold it in 1882 to Dr. Ballou. On that corner in 1882, Dr. Ballou built the first brick structure south of the tracks.
It was announced in the April 28, 1882 Herald that he would build two stores 48 x 66, with a hall above. (Hall then meaning a large open space). But he apparently changed his mind a month later and decided to build only one 2-story store at 24 x 66, still with a hall above.
The first tenant was J.L. Conover’s furniture making and undertaking business. That was followed by E.W. Brooks’ grocery and fruit store. In 1885, Ziba Osman bought out Brooks and lasted there until 1890. D.L. Barney moved his hardware and tin shop into Ballou’s in 1890 and started a long list of hardware store owners. Following Barney at 90 N. Williams was Jackman & Collins, Jackman Bros., Voltz Bros., Voltz & Kiest, Alvin Kiest, and Whyte & Crabtree, until 1906. John Marshall bought the property from Dr. Ballou in 1893 and in 1906 placed his own Gracy & Marshall hardware store in 90, until 1908. At that time, Axel Lundquist ran his jewelry shop there, until 1910. It briefly went back to housing a hardware store, with Prickett’s hardware, until Pete Metropulos opened his ice cream parlor there in 1913.
90 N. Williams was the home of the Crystal Lake Ice Cream Parlor from 1913 to 1959. Various successors to Pete ran a Corner Store, the Crystal Ice Cream and Candy Parlor, and the Downtown Grill until 1976, when Gus Mouhelis and young Pete Metropulos opened the Olympic Restaurant and Lounge. They sold the business to brothers Peter and Chris Angelo in 1998. They changed the name to Café Olympic.
The second floor did serve as the Grand Army of the Republic’s hall until 1885. Dentists, tailors, and attorneys all ran businesses from the second floor after that. L.A. Werden in 1895 and Fletcher Ross and Leon Viall in the 1910s all ran their dental offices from the second floor. Tailors Donald Sutherland and Nels Johnson worked on the second floor for a few years each in the 1900s. L.D. Lowell, the village’s attorney, had his law office on the second floor for over a decade beginning in 1895. Henry Cowlin moved into the second floor in 1923 and his sons still had their offices there decades later.
The basement served as W.E. Prickett’s barber shop in 1883 and later as Shales & Andrus’ coal stoves dealership and D.L. Barney’s tinshop and plumbing business, which became Ernest Fritz’s tinshop and plumbing business.
Dr. Ballou did build his second store on the same lot, 8 years later, in 1890, right next to 90, at what is now 86 N. Williams. More about that building next week.
