West Bend, WI – Funeral services for Robert Kuester Senior were held January 24, 2008 at St. James Episcopal Church in West Bend. Kuester died January 16, 2008, at the age of 88. Kuester’s obituary read, “Bob was raised in downtown West Bend above his family’s automobile repair business, H.W. Kuester & Son’s.”
“There were actually two locations for the business,” said Robert Kuester Junior. “The first H.W. Kuester & Son’s garage was where the brown, double doors are located next to the Daily Grind.
The auto shop was originally a stable when my grandpa bought it and he built the building next door,” said Kuester about the location at 150 S. Main Street which became Kuester’s Hardware store. “My grandpa, grandma, my dad and uncle lived above the hardware store,” he said. “I loved it when I was a kid because you could stand on the porch and watch the parade.”
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Kuester’s grandfather, Herman Walter Kuester started the dealership in 1912, selling Hudson’s and John Deere implement. A yellow, brittle newspaper clipping from the family photo album said a “second hand, 2-cylinder Studebaker bought for $485 in 1909 was responsible for establishing the H.W. Kuester garage.
Herman and Henry Kuester purchased a building in the south triangle block from Henry Lemke Sr. This included a three-story structure which had been used as a factory by the Zilberzahn motor works, but at that time was densely populated by pigeons.”
Black-and-white photos show the original brick building with the words washing, polishing, repairing and gasoline written alongside the door frames. A wooden ramp stretched from the boardwalk sidewalk down to Main Street which allowed cars to drive up and into the shop.
“My dad worked as a mechanic at the dealership, and he was a salesman and he helped at the hardware store, wherever,” said Kuester shrugging his shoulders with a that’s-how-it-was-in-those-days attitude. Photos of the interior of the hardware store show a room full of white Thor wringer washers; paint cans from Hooker Paint were stacked along the back wall underneath a row of black engine belts that ran the length of the ceiling.
Another picture shows a man using a hand crank on a gas pump located in front of the dealership on Main Street. Kuester estimated the price of gas at the time was 16 cents a gallon.
The second location for the auto shop was where the old Main Street Antiques or Male Stripper at 303 Water Street. “My grandpa built that in the 1950s and they were there until the 1960s,” said Kuester about the location that several years ago housed Goodyear Tire. “They moved the business across the bridge because the new location on Water Street was a lot bigger.”
Other downtown businesses on the south end of Main Street included Mehring’s Fish Market, S.Moser’s Triangle Tavern, Heil’s Paint Store, and the Texaco gas station. Behind the shop was the Ford garage, and West Bend Monument.
When H.W. Kuester & Son’s was along Water Street neighboring businesses included West Bend Equipment Company and Gehl Company.
The Kuester name has a long legacy in West Bend. Kuester’s great grandfather Carl donated the first horse-drawn fire wagon to West Bend and he started Kuester’s Island Summer Resort on Kuester Island. A small postcard shows a picture of the brown, brick house on the corner of Kuester Lane, which is the original family homestead. The postcard reads “Excellent bathing, boating, and fishing. Carl Kuester Proprietor.” The location of the resort was listed as “one-half mile from depot.”
Other local Kuester businesses included an Excelsior motorcycle shop on Park Avenue, a gas station on top of Barton hill (previously the Bagg End) and the Schmidt & Stork wagon factory in Young America.
