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Mutual Mall to be razed in the coming days to make way for Dairy Queen

December 17, 2020 – West Bend, WI – Heavy equipment is expected to roll in the next couple of days as the old Mutual Mall, 1043 S. Main Street, in West Bend is going to be leveled.
Below is a final walk through of the Mutual Mall, previously home to Larson Furniture Store and West Bend Mutual Insurance.
Larson Furniture
Photo courtesy Steve Kissinger

For many in West Bend the building is the former home of Larsons Family Furniture.  An advertisement from a phone book cover reads, “Where Value is Measured by Quality at Modest Prices.”

The phone book cover from 1962 shows an address of 723 N. Main Street.  Jim Larson moved the business to S. Main by 1964.

“I knew Jim Larson and when he built on S. Main Street it was way out of town and everybody thought boy that’s way out there and he’s not going to have any business,” said Jerry Mehring of West Bend. “He built beyond Decorah Road and we thought what’s he doing way out there.”

Larson's Family Furniture
Photo courtesy Steve Kissinger -1968 West Bend Phone directory
There has been a lot of activity at the building the past few weeks as property owner Kevin Scheunemann has been letting the public empty the contents. He also granted permission to allow the local SWAT Team to practice in the building along with the local fire departments used the site for training purposes.
Scheunemann is bringing a Dairy Queen franchise back to West Bend.
“We are excited, as a locally-owned family business, to re-vitalize this property and bring the DQ brand back to West Bend,” he said.

Dairy Queen

Scheunemann said, “I signed the paperwork in July to authorize the American Dairy Queen engineer to evaluate the property and begin putting together the concept plan layout for approval by the City of West Bend.

Dairy Queen design

The existing building on the site is going to be entirely demolished.
Mutual Mall

 Schneuemann purchased the property July 30, 2020 for $425,000.

Mutual Mall formerly Larsen's Family Furniture

 

On a history note: What do you remember about the former Larson Family Furniture?

-Jerry Mehring – “Jim had a lower level to his store and that was pretty unique for the time.”

Cathy Lawton – “Larsons Furniture was a beautiful store. I bought pottery pieces made in Portugal from there and still have them to this day.”

Joseph Hynst – “Kettle Moraine Fitness Center used to be on the lower level. Owned by Todd & Jay Pruitt.”

1 COMMENT

  1. We don’t need Dairy Queen jumbos is across the street. And we also don’t need 2 Taco Bell’s.. come on city planners… we need a better variety. Where is chick fillet?

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