This image is a portion of a 1909 photo that shows the Bauge & Alm Shoe Store behind the popcorn wagon, a fixture on the corner of Main Street and Douglas Avenue from about 1905 to 1939. The railroad car is Interurban Car No. 64, bound for Des Moines. The freshly shaven gentleman has just emerged from the O. K. Barbershop in the basement of the bank.
Bauge Shoe Co. Serves Ames Area for 47 Years
Ames Daily Tribune, August 2, 1954
Bauge & Alm Shoe Store was started in August of 1907 by Ole N. Bauge and Charles Alm. The store changed its name to Bauge and Son in 1920 when Jennings Bauge went into business with his father. The name changed again in 1932 when it became the Bauge Shoe Company, Inc. Bauge Shoe Co. was one of the longest lasting businesses in Ames.
Bauge & Alm Shoe Store at 204 Main (now Cynthia Duff Plaza), 1916
In 1920, J. S. Bauge bought out [Charles] Alm's interest in the business to become joint owner with his father, and became sole owner of the company when his father died in 1951 at the age of 96 years.
The Bauge Shoe company features Freeman shoes for men, Narural Bridge and Fashion Craft shoes for women and Edwards shoes for infants and children. The store also handles the Goodrich line of rubber footware and a line of house slippers for all members of the family. "Our business is known as a family shoe store," Bauge said. "We carry every type of shoe for every member of the family from work shoes to party slippers."
Bauge's concentrates on stocking the finest lines of shoes for everyone in the family, keeping to fewer top lines than dabbling with a little of many lines because Bauge believes that in this way the store can better serve the customer. The store also carries a stock of all types of shoe polishes and shoelaces.
Through the years the business has been enlarged at three different times to include more floor space in the building. "When the business was started one of the main fixtures was the old pot belly stove that stood in the middle of the room near the back of the store. Today we heat with gas and have an air conditioning unit," Bauge said. "A lot of time has passed by since my father first opened this door to business in Ames." he added.
Si Larson, right, shows J. S. Bauge a new style that came in for women. The shoe store stocks everything in footware for the family, and has carried shoes from the same top companies for as long as 20 years. Larson has been with Bauge's for 40 years, starting before World War I, while Bauge worked for his father before buying into the business and has 47 years of experience in the retail shoe business.
Si Larson, who started working for the Bauge Shoe company before World War I, is manager of the retail store. He came to the firm in 1914 and in five weeks will have completed 40 years experience with the the shoe store. Totaled together, Bauge and Larson have a sum of 87 years of experience in the retail shoe business.
Bauge Shoe Closes
After 59 years of service the Bauge Shoe Company closed in 1966. The building at 204 Main Street, Bauge Shoe Store's location was demolished in 1967 as part of the Switchyard project. The Chicago Northwestern switchyard tracks south of Main Street were removed and converted into parking. The space at 204 was turned into a walkway and small park. It was later named Cynthia Duff Plaza, Cynthia secured the land for the town and also ran a restaurant on that site.