YANKTON, S.D. -- Check out these "signs of the times" in Historic Downtown Yankton. Times, as in 1915 and 1935. Years gone by.
They promote places like Meredith Jewelry, Kline Jewelry, O'Malley's Bar, Boston Shoes to Boots and more. They're the kinds of signs -- with neon lighting -- that make the fellows of "American Pickers" salivate with thoughts of resale.
"Our sign dates back to 1915," said Dennis Menke, owner of Boston Shoes to Boots on West Third Street in downtown Yankton.
At the turn of that century, Boston, Mass., was known as the shoe-making capital of the world. Businessmen branched out by selling all the goods you needed to start a shoe business. And, yes, that included signage.
Greek immigrant Gus Economy established this Boston Shoes to Boots store 96 years ago and put up the sign. Economy trained Cliff Menke and sold the store to him in 1948. Cliff Menke ran the business until selling it to his son, Dennis Menke, in 1979. Dennis Menke has been here ever since, working aside his wife, Ann, in South Dakota's oldest shoe shop.
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"There are four of these signs left in the U.S.," Dennis Menke said. "The sign used to have neon. I'm hesitant to take it down (to fix it) as I think there's a city ordinance. I might not be grandfathered in if I take the sign down."
Not true, according to Joe Morrow, a building official serving the City of Yankton. The boot-shaped sign hanging over Menke's sidewalk is allowed in the downtown business district.
"Projection signs must be four feet from the edge of the curb and they have to be at least 8.5 feet above the sidewalk," Morrow said.
Those standards apply for the sign touting Menke's business, one where the 62-year-old has toiled for 50 years.
Just up the street to the east is Bernie Kline, an 85-year-old celebrating his 50th year in business with Kline Jewelry. His sign is shaped like a ring. The diamond is neon. And, like the boot promotion piece, his sign has some age. It probably dates back to the 1930s when Arnold Fox moved his watch repair shop out of the WNAX building to this site.
The jewelry cases and the exterior sign are original, according to Kline, who learned this trade by fixing watches for 11 years with Crescent Jewelers on the corner of Fifth and Pearl streets in Sioux City in the 1950s.
"I bought this store in 1961," he said. "The sign was here years before me."
Kline's son, David, has run the day-to-day operations at Kline Jewelry downtown and at Yankton Mall for the past 15 years. Bernie still stops in to repair watches, clocks, etc. He also likes to share the history of his store and its place in downtown Yankton.
His sign is made of metal and tin. Why wasn't it made of fiberglass? The question elicits a laugh from the long-time jeweler. "Fiberglass wasn't around back then," he said.
Just up the block to the east is another long-time jeweler and another long-time jewelry sign. Francis "Chris" Christensen joined his wife, Sherril Christensen, and their children in leaving San Diego, Calif., in 1973. At the suggestion of a former neighbor, they moved to Yankton.
Francis Christensen, an industrial engineer, had no job. And really no plan. "It took some courage," he said.
"We didn't want to raise our kids in San Diego," Sherril said. "It was getting very crowded."
She was a native of Spirit Lake, Iowa. He was raised in Milford, Iowa.
They came back to Siouxland and Francis Christensen, in need of a watch battery, soon entered the shop of Arthur Meredith, who started Meredith Jewelry on West Third in downtown Yankton in 1925. The two men connected instantly. And in a matter of months, Meredith sold his business to the Christensens.
"Art had the store for 48 years," Christensen said. "We've had it 38 years."
The Elgin Watch Company erected the Meredith sign in 1935. The Elgin named used to grace a glass case that covered the face of the watch. That case was shot out years ago.
But the sign endured. As did the mom-and-pop business it served.
It's a story you see up and down West 3rd Street in Historic Downtown Yankton.Â
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