Apartments await demolition

After decades of being home to a variety of businesses and individuals the Claremont Apartments on Main Street now sit silently awaiting their demolition.
The structure is scheduled for demolition by Dodge County. The building was scheduled to be torn down several weeks ago but work was halted the first day when it was discovered there was a still active gas main at the location.
The building, which is actually two adjacent buildings, was known as the Claremont Apartments for the past 20 years or so, said City Clerk Elizabeth Sorg, and has been vacant for a number of years. Through tax forfeiture they reverted to Dodge County and the county decided the condition of the buildings warranted demolition.
Over the years, though, the buildings housed active businesses in the community, said former mayor Don Gray.
The building is well over a hundred years old, said Dodge County Historical Society member Dale Morris. A fire in 1898 leveled an entire block of wood buildings, and within the next couple of years the new building was constructed of brick. It was originally called the Ark, because the original structure had burned and left nothing around the location but the water used to extinguish the fire.
Supposedly that name is written under the doorsill, Morris said.
At one time, the entire building housed the Yankowiak Hotel.
Over the years the building was home to restaurants, a drug store and a barbershop.
In fact, both Gray and Morris said, for many years there were two restaurants in the building, next door to each other.
One of the cafés was behind the barbershop, Gray said, and the second café was located to the east. 
Both cafes apparently were able to stay in business, Gray said, perhaps due to the fact that one of them sold 3.2 beer while the other did not.
Gray added that for those who preferred something stronger than the 3.2 beer, there was a pool hall on the other end of town.
Gray said he also remembered McCall’s drugstore once located in the building as it had a soda fountain.
At other times, Gray said, the building housed a beauty shop, a store with collectibles and for a while the east end of the building was used as a youth center.
All the time the building was used for retail it had apartments on the second floor. For 20 or 25 years, Morris said, the building was totally given over to apartments.
The building will be torn down in coming weeks, Sorg said, as soon as the issue with the gas line is resolved. The future of the property has not yet been determined.