Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Baum's Bazaar


In the center of this photo is the location where Baum's Bazaar once stood. Baum's Bazaar was the fancy dry goods store L. Frank Baum opened at 406 South Main Street in Aberdeen, South Dakota, on October 1, 1888. Baum stocked it with all sorts of exotic goods he thought the citizens of the burgeoning town of Aberdeen might want. According to Don Artz's A Tour of L. Frank Baum's Aberdeen, the establishment even featured Baum's Ice Cream Boudoir, an "elaborate soda fountain." Unfortunately Aberdeen's economy took a downturn. Baum's Bazaar closed on January 1, 1890. Baum's sister-in-law, Helen Leslie Gage, took it over as Gage's Bazaar for a few years, while L. Frank Baum moved on to newspaper publishing.

These days the location is the southern part of the County Community Health offices.

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