YESTERYEAR: H. Schminke Company
by PAT SIDES
When this photograph was taken in the early twentieth century, these buildings were already old and would soon be razed. On the corner of what is now Market and Court streets is Henry Schminke’s company, which manufactured stoves, furnaces, tin and slate roofing, and other goods.
Schminke was one of many local German immigrants engaged in the building trades who profited from a construction boom during this era. Nearby was the flourishing company of George L. Mesker, the son of German immigrants, who operated his flourishing ironworks, which later was renamed Mesker Steel.
The city block shown here was razed to make way for the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Coliseum, which was dedicated in April of 1917.
