When looking at a street corner today, it can be difficult to remember what was there previously.
In April 1901, Matt and Mary Phibbs purchased the corner lots on the southwest corner of Beltrami Avenue and Sixth Street for $550 from the Bemidji Townsite Co. Two years later, Matt Phibbs purchased the old Achenbach house and moved it to the rear of his residence property. He may have set this up as a rental behind his family residence. The Phibbs family owned these corner lots for several decades.
Matthew Phibbs was full Irish, but born in Canada in 1862. On December 14, 1896, he married Mary Dudley, who had been teaching in Fosston. They homesteaded near Blackduck until June 1897, when they moved to Bemidji and became permanent residents. Mr. Phibbs was in the real estate business and was appointed Register of Deeds when the county was organized, holding that position for several years. He was a trustee of the Methodist church and Mrs. Phibbs was also very active in the organization. In 1900, with one child, they actually had a servant living with them.
He was generally well liked, but subject to a practical joke like many others. In 1901, Phibbs has been workine like a horse and was reminded of the fact by a painful numbness in his right shoulder. Some cute friend recommended Dr. Spaulding, who could cure him in a hurry. He followed the advice and called at Jinkinson’s barn to learn that the new doctor only cured the ills of horses. Phibbs said, “This was another horse on him.”
In the 1920s, Matt and Mary Alice Phibbs moved to their farm in Rockwood township for a few years, then built a home on Birchmont Drive where they lived until Mrs. Phibbs died in 1938.
In 1925, Hans Mittet leased the Phibbs house and moved into it. He also bought a strip of land next to the telephone office building and on this strip of land he put up a brick building 8 ft by 24 ft in size with a plate glass front for his shoe shop.
I remember walking past this shoe shop on the way to and from St Philip’s School. It always seemed dark, but with no windows except across the front, he had to depend on overhead lighting for his work. The place smelled of leather, of course, but he fixed belts and boots and shoes for us for years.
He advertised his place as Hans Mittet, Shoe Rebuilder from 1925 to at least the late 1940s. He was still a Norwegian citizen in 1940, but became naturalized, probably during WWII. He was retired and no longer able to work in 1950.
By 1927, the Phibbs’ house was removed, Hans and his family rented a house at 510 Beltrami, and the corner became the site of Ray Kaliher’s Leader Oil Company. By 1953, it had a handsome building on the corner; it was the garage and sales room of Ray J. Kaliher, Pontiac dealer.
In 1956, Northwestern Bell Telephone remodeled the former Kaliher Motor Company building into its new business offices. Howard Menge was the manager at the time. The site housed Northwestern Bell until 1988-89 when it became U.S. West Communications.