In 1891 postmaster Eli A. Frantz erected a two-story commercial building near Waukegan and Everett, with a general store on the first floor.
Just after the turn of the century, Edward F. Stuenkel took over as postmaster and as operator of the general store. He was also the local undertaker, and constructed a shed nearby for his hearse, which was called “the morgue” by local residents. When a fire destroyed St. Patrick Church in 1908, priests said Mass in “the morgue” until the new church was completed.
J. J. Lancaster & Co., run by descendants of original settler James Lancaster, took over the general store in the 1910s; then it was taken over by the Lunham Brothers in 1920.