Conroy’s
(More to come on this post)
This building, dated to 1954 by the County, has had a lot of different names and several different addresses. Amazingly, it is still in use today! The address seemed to change a lot, although the building never moved… It’s just that Hudson Road underwent many changes on its way to Highway 94.
- Highway 12
- 2210 Hudson Road
- 2210 Old Hudson Road
- 2181 Suburban Ave.
And the building had many residents, including:
- George Conroy’s
- Knight’s
- King’s Inn
- Chain Link
- Studio 94
- Palomino
GEORGE CONROY’S
Conroy’s opened in 1956.
Jeff Dayton posted the following:
This is an artist rendering of an ad for George Conroy’s on Highway 12 (now I-94) across from Sun Ray Shopping Center. My grandparents owned it and I loved working there as a kid. Note the Monday chicken dinner special for $1.85!
Mr. and Mrs. George A. Conroy were the in-laws of Mr. and Mrs. George D. Dayton, Jeff’s parents.
Jeff remembers that the future Joan Kroc worked as a hostess at Conroy’s.
Mary on Facebook remembers that the glass dome on top had to be covered with a tarp because it reflected the sun and was a problem for planes flying to Holman Field or Lake Elmo’s airport.
The restaurant was heavily advertised in Select magazine, with this distinctive drawing:
Select Magazine, February 1960
Music tended toward jazz, with the Gene Eyman Quartet providing the entertainment for many years. In May 1961, an ad featured Don Anderson on jazz harp.
In January 1962, Conroy’s had joined the Twist fad, announcing “It’s all new music for dancing at George Conroy’s!” The Twisters (an originally-named group) performed every Tuesday, and the Kings Men were on every Friday and Saturday. Starting March 2, 1962, Dr. Henry Blackburn would make his debut, playing his Sidney Bechet Straight Soprano Saxophone with his quartet.
The restaurant closed in 1965.
THE KNIGHT’S
The first evidence of The Knights is in May 1967, where it is advertised as a Lebanese restaurant. Shish-kebab was served among the palms and beaded curtains…. or you could get a steak. (Minneapolis Tribune, May 7, 1967)
It was still The Knights in January 1968.
KING’S INN
In an article dated December 11, 1970, Don Morrison of the Star reported that he went to check out the new St. Paul branch of the King’s Inn, only to find that it was the old Conroy’s. Owner George Theros, owner of the St. Louis Park restaurant of the same name, had put $250,000 into the St. Paul location – “not as a gaudy display, but as class, as understated opulence.”
The main, formal dining room (called the Archives, one of the things I wouldn’t have done) is a gracious, subdued area of well-dressed tables and banquettes. The walls are lined with bookshelves. OK, the books are sawed in half and glued into place, but they provide the friendly restful feel that any book-lined room has.
Artful partitioning separates this from two other dining rooms that abut it. One is an informal but nice cafe. The other, also screened off, is a black-leather, masculine-clubby sort of place.
Across the lobby is the cocktail lounge. It is furnished in overstuffed chairs, grouped into gracious agglutinations. The walls are luxuriantly adorned with dado-framed silk (or so I thin: I was too comfortable in my easy chair to go look closely) for an elegant living room effect. It is, simply, a beautiful room.
The menu was identical to that in St. Louis Park. At the time, Manny DeSilva, a popular local musician, was entertaining in the piano bar.
CHAIN LINK
The Chain Link was a country bar, in service from about 1972 to 1978. It was owned by Gerry Landreville. Someone named Big Paul Groettum was known to have worked there. Young adults from the nearby 3M facility stopped by after work and had a great time, they remember!
The bands included:
- American Grease
- Good Vibrations
- Rockin’ Hollywoods
- White Sidewalls
- Cleavettes
- Free and Easy
The ad below doesn’t look very good and I don’t know where it came from, but doing a search for “Chain Link” mostly gets you a lot of ads for fencing…
June 1974
Locked in the Cooler
One of those tragedies that sounds like it belongs on a sitcom happened on Sunday night, November 26, 1972, when two robbers set their sights on the Chain Link Bar. Four people working there were forced to go down into the basement: owner Gerald D. Landreville, his wife Jo Anne, employee Laverne Landreville, and employee Quentin Bailey. All four were told to strip to their underwear, and were locked in the cooler.
The holdup men got away with Mrs. Landreville’s wedding rings ($1,200), Mr. Landreville’s watch ($125) and his two diamond rings ($180), Bailey’s watch ($100), and everyone’s wallets (value unknown).
The story went out on the Associated Press, but according to newspapers.com, it was only picked up by five papers (none in the ‘Cities): Bismarck, Sioux Falls, Fergus Falls, Winona, and the Huron (SD) Daily Plainsman. Each had just a bit different headline about being in their undies in the cooler. Just as well.
Image courtesy Ron The Don Cockriel
STUDIO 94
Studio 94 was a disco, named after its proximity to Interstate 94. It was one of the few places in town that catered to a black clientele. It was active from about 1979 to 1982.
PALOMINO
Palomino returned to the country theme, riding until about 1992.
BATTLE CREEK HEAD START
As of 2018, the building has been the home of Battle Creek Head Start.
And Russ Hanson, the King of before and after, has made two juxtapositions for us:
In the Google Earth photo below you can see the darker roof as the original outline of the building and the “dome” on top is clearly visible. The front has been added later.
Photo merge by me (Russ) using a Google Earth view and Jeff Dayton’s original advertisement.
Thank you, Russ, Jeff, and everyone on Facebook who helped solve this puzzle!