KALAMA — The Heritage Square building had been around longer than anyone in town can remember. Its oiled wood floors and gentle yellow trim had greeted residents and tourists since 1896.

The building burned down June 10, but memories of it live on with town historians and long-time residents, who remember its days as a mercantile store, millinery, library, brewery and, lastly, an antiques shop frequented quietly by actor Marlon Brando.

To many city residents, the building represented a neighborly way of life that is long gone.

“It was different then,” said life-long Kalama resident Bill Boatman, 81, who worked in the building when it was a grocery and hardware store in the 1940s. “A lady would come into shop, and she would just hand you a shopping list.”

The building at First and Fir streets was built for the Jerard brothers in 1896 by Albert H. Nunn. It’s uncertain what the Jerards used it for.

John S. Cloninger purchased the building in 1905. He and his wife, Mary, opened Cloninger & Co. General Merchandise, selling hardware, groceries and dry goods. Throughout the ‘20s and ‘30s, the Cloningers’ building also served as the town’s library and hosted a drug store.

Virgil E. Stevens was the next owner. He opened VE Stevens Grocery and Hardware in the early ‘40s, operating throughout the ‘60s. Stevens had worked for Cloninger, his uncle, and purchased the building in 1947 from Ina Cloninger, paying $5,000.

“Virg was a big, tall guy. He did credit business. He helped a lot of people that needed help. As far as I know, he didn’t lose much money,” Boatman said.

Boatman worked in the store while he was in high school from 1943 to 1947.

“The building was all wood construction,” Boatman recalls, “we oiled up the wood floors to keep the dust down. It seemed like we did it over Fourth of July weekend, or some long weekend.”

Kenny Dickey, a long-time Kalama resident also remembered the oiled wood floors. “All the loggers would walk in with their cork shoes. (Stevens) had that one big stove right in the center. And behind that was a set of stairs that went to the mezzanine level.”

Sometime in early ‘40s, the north part of the building and the second story were torn down. Dickey bought some of the lumber salvaged from the demolition to help build his own home in around 1950, he said.

“Part of what I got was the upper part of the building. This guy tore it down, pulled out all the nails, and then he’d sell it. He didn’t deliver. You had to haul it yourself,” Dickey recalled.

Stevens was a sportsman and a hunter.

“He loaned me the first rifle I killed an elk with in ‘48,” Boatman said. “Guns were scarce because of the war. He had a 30-aught-6, but he wanted me to buy a 270. He sold me his first 270 after the war.”

Most of Stevens’ business was credit business. Customers would drop off a grocery list and just walk out. Boatman and other teenage workers filled the orders and delivered them to customers’ homes.

“The doors were always unlocked. We unloaded the groceries on the table, or sometimes the floor. Because cardboard boxes were a premium during the war, we wanted the boxes back.

“You delivered any amount of groceries, no matter if it was $15 or $2. I even delivered a single yeast cake once,” Boatman said, holding up his hands to show the shape and size of the cake. “Mrs. Jones, I’ll always remember that. Many people would say, ‘I’m not gonna do that.’ But not Virg. She was a customer, and he always treated her as a customer.”

Boatman also recalled that “every time a person would pay their bill, or pay on their bill, Virg would … give a cookie to all the kids.”

Boatman also remembers that Stevens displayed a rattlesnake in a fish bowl in the front of the store. Once it came time to get rid of the full-grown snake, Stevens and Willard Dundas, another employee, “smashed its head and threw it in the stove in the back. They thought they’d killed it, but Willard went back to throw some trash in the stove, and (the snake) struck at him,” Boatman said.

Stevens died in 1970 and gave the building to his nephew Robert Cornthwaite, a Hollywood actor. Cornthwaite sold it to Deon and Diane Schroeder for about $10,000 in 1971.

Schroeder already owned The Kalama Trader, a nearby store selling antiques, freight-damaged goods and furniture, and used Heritage Square as a warehouse.

In 1984, Schroeder sold the store to Tom Baune and Beth Hartwell, who founded Pyramid Ales and helped pioneer in the state’s craft brew movement. But in 1990 they moved to the newer, bigger building located at 110 W. Marine Dr., near the Columbia River.

JoAn Corrales purchased the building on a whim in 1991. Rumor had it the building was going to be torn down and made into a parking lot.

“I was going to buy a yacht named Blue Moon. My daughter said, ‘You don’t know anything about boats.’ ”

So she decided to buy the run-down Heritage Square building instead and turn it into an antiques store. “Everyone thought I was completely out of my mind,” Corrales said.

Corrales worked day and night for two years to restore the building. In 1993, after taking out thousands of dollars in loans, the restoration was complete.

“I woke up one morning and said, ‘I’m going to fix this.’ And that’s what I did. I worked sometimes 20 hours a day on it. It took 10 years to pay off the loans.”

Actor Marlon Brando, a friend of Corrales’, loved hanging out at Heritage Square at night. Corrales would sneak him inside, and Brando would sit in the mezzanine balcony in the dark for hours, watching people passing under the streetlights.

Corrales, now 73, had recently given the building to her daughter, Karrie Svatos, 56.

Corrales described her relationship with the building like a marriage.

“It was like any relationship, you try and make it better all the time. The skylight leaked constantly,” said Corrales. “But there was something about it. People would come in and they wouldn’t want to leave.”

The building caught fire at around 12:15 p.m June 10. More than 50 firefighters couldn’t save the historic building. The cause remains under investigation.

Heritage Square has since been bulldozed. Corrales managed to save a few floor boards and will use them if she ever reconstructs the building.

“It’s like a death in the family,” Corrales said. “Do you keep on going like it’s still there, or do you bury it and go on with your life? I don’t have the answer to that.”

Related article:

Fire destroys historic Kalama building (with video)  (June 10)

113 years of history at First and Fir

1896 — Building constructed for Jerard brothers

1905 — John S. Cloninger opens Cloninger & Co General Merchandise, purchasing store for $1,200

Circa 1940— Virgil E. Stevens opens VE Stevens Grocery

1947 — Stevens buys building from Cloninger family for $5,000

1970 — Virgil Stevens dies; estate gives building to Robert Cornthwaite following year

1971 — Cornthwaite sells building to Deon Schroeder for $10,000;

1971-84 — Schroeder uses building as warehouse for Kalama Trader

1984-89 — Tom Baune and Beth Hartwell buy building and establish brewery

1991 — JoAn Corrales buys building and starts remodeling

1993 — Corrales opens Heritage Square antiques store.

2002 — Corrales gives building to daughter Karrie Svatos

2009 — Fire destroys building June 10