Ryder Brick Block
(514 Third Avenue)
1901-1910
After living on Pine Street in 1901, he built a house at 514 Third Avenue (5/25/1901, DEH) where he would live until building another house further down Third Avenue, as the area where he originally built his house had become prime real estate for businesses in particular, and by 1908, the property was practically downtown with the newly built Kohrt Building and Geiser Buildings surrounding the spot. (I need more info, like did he move the house, property transaction as to when he got the property, and when Hanson built the place). In 1908, C. M. Nelson branched off from J. H. Nelson to open his own tailor shop, and he opened it right above Ryders Furniture Store (Hibbing Tribune 10/2/1908). After being above his store for two months, a small contemporary store was built for him at 514 Third Avenue (Mesaba Ore, 12/12/1908) until W. J. Ryder started building his brick block in 1910.
1910-1921
In January of 1910, the plans were drawn out for a two-story brick block by Hibbing Architects D. V. Case & Co. The first floor served as a store and the second floor as offices (Hibbing Tribune, 1/31/1910). The building featured mottled bricks, cathedral-like glass, metal ceilings, ornate chandeliers, and side lamps. The first store to open in the building was W. W. Brown's Delmonico Restaurant. Inside were three booths seating twelve per booth, ten tables, and a counter with twenty stools. The place opened in September of 1910 with a stringed orchestra highlighting the grand opening (HDT, 9/17/1910). The restaurant operated there until 1912; after that, the dime store Home Stores Co opened as before in March of 1911. Representatives came to Hibbing and were impressed, but they waited for a suitable place to open (HDT, 8/29/1912). David Graham refitted the store using both the basement and first floors as floor space (HDT, 9/5/1912)(HDT, 9/17/1912). The district manager E. W. Craft helped arrange the store for its opening along with the superintendent of the company F. M. Conrad, who came for the 10 days before it opened (HDT, 9/17/1912)(HDT, 10/8/1912). The store opened as its ninth store on the afternoon of Friday, October 11, first to inspect the new store and on Saturday to sell its stock, with Earl Haire as manager (HDT, 10/8/1912). After business had increased 25% from the previous year, the contracting company Tomlinson & Egan constructed a 40x25 addition onto the building and remodeled the store, which lasted from July to September of 1914 (HDT, 9/19/1914). Notably, Thomas Peterson decorated the store with new wallpaper, the Home Electric Co installed the light fixtures, and the retail fixtures were installed by the Green Bay Showcase Company under the supervision of L. C. Bolzenthal (HDT, 9/19/1914). In April of 1916, the Kaye Stores chain took over all of the Home Stores (HDT, 4/12/1916). So, at 7 PM on April 14, 1916, the Home Stores closed, and the Kaye Stores opened with the DiMarco Orchestra playing music for the occasion (HDT, 4/13/1916). In February of 1917, the Metropolitan Stores bought out the Kaye Stores (HDT, 2/24/1917), so yet another grand opening occurred on Saturday, May 26 at 3 PM, with H. C. Bailey as manager (Mesaba Ore, 5/26/1917)(HDT, 5/23/1917). It would later be under the management of the McLellan stores, with the company moving to South Hibbing, opening at 9:30 AM on Saturday, December 9, 1922 (HDT, 3/25/1922)(HDT, 12/9/1922).
1923-1941
As North Hibbing started to decline, business steadily moved to South Hibbing and its new business district. After the McLellan Stores occupied the store, the owner of the building, W. J. Ryder, used it as his undertaking shop. After that its unclear what happened but it was presumably used as storage during the last part of its life from the mid 30s until its demolition in 1941.