May 25, 2021 – West Bend, Wi – There’s a May 31, 2021 deadline quickly approaching for businesses in the old West Bend Brewery including Ray’s Shoe Repair, Pruett’s Floor Covering, Fuge Heating and Air Conditioning, and R/T Speed Shop all have to be out by the end of the month as the wrecking ball is coming to level the building first constructed in 1868.
In April 2021 a story was posted on WashingtonCountyInsider.com about Ray Carlson relocating his shop after 33 years at 459 N. Main Street in West Bend.
As of Monday, May 24, 2021 Ray’s Shoe Repair has mostly moved into 827 S. Main Street in the Decorah Shopping Center; round the corner from Jeff’s Spirits on Main.
Just to the south of Ray’s… his old buddy RT (Bob Tellier) is packing it in for good and closing up shop.
“I’m pulling the pin after being involved in the speed world since 1970,” he said. “I think it’s time.”
Tellier has been in the old brewery building, 451 N. Main Street, since 1980. “I’ll mostly miss the customers,” said Tellier. “I’ll have kids come in here and tell me their granddad shopped in this store.”
Tellier recalls coming to the shop too, but when he was a kid it was where his dad bought beer and ice for his bar/restaurant on Big Cedar Lake. “He ran Tellier’s Kettle Moraine Inn… it’s now the Old Cedar Inn,” he said.
There are pictures of hot rods, girly calendars, and catalogues for vehicle parts scattered around what’s left of the store.
The big engine in the window has been moved and the yellow business sign is off the side of the building. Tellier is pulling back the white pegboard off the walls and underneath revealing leaded glass windows… from days of the old brewery.
Very sad that such a historical building is being destroyed