Gerdes Store and Sandy Post Office - 1873

Richard Gerdes, of Eagle Creek, has the distinction of opening the first store and establishing the “Sandy” Post Office in 1873, which gave this tiny town its name. The photo above is enlarged from the photo on page one. You can barely see the Barlow Road trailing off to the right. After a number of years the Gerdes business was sold to Friedrich Meinig. In the 1880s Meinig built a large building a few blocks east to accommodate a larger general merchandise store and included a dance hall and saloon. The building here now, in the original Gerdes location, was built by Henry Perret in the mid 1920s as an automobile dealership and garage. Ace Hardware currently occupies the Perret building.