1709 Lamar, shown here as it looks today, was apparently the Sole Owner store location shown below.
I can't stop writing about Clarence Saunders' curiously named "Sole Owner of My Name" grocery stores. In September, I told the whole story of that short-lived chain and included a photo of one of the stores. Go here to read that story and see that photo. I'll wait here until you do.
A few weeks later, I included a second photograph (the one below), showing a somewhat larger store, and complained that I had been unable to determine its location, based on the few clues visible in the photo. Hence, the "mystery." Here's that story.
Are you back? Good.
Because Memphian Adam Shealy has solved the mystery. Here's what he told me:
Vance, I believe I found your Clarence Saunders Sole Owner store mystery location! I noticed the angle of the building didn't look like a normal 90° angle so I started thinking it had to be on Lamar. Well some street view research led me to this: 1709 Lamar Ave, Memphis, TN 38114 (screenshot above). Side by side with the picture in your article, they look to be a perfect match. I'd love to hear what you think, as I always enjoy your articles!
I have to admire the logic that Mr. Shealy used to determine the angled shape of the lot, and then he actually took the time to travel along Lamar (with help from Google Street View). I'm fairly confident that this is indeed the same building. Look carefully at the roofline, and the door and window openings. You can see where the rows of windows above the awnings used to be. For that matter, as I told Adam, it even looks like the exact same telephone pole out front! Is that even possible?
I confess I'm still mystified by the Lindahl Hardware connection, which is what had stumped me earlier. As I had mentioned, such a store was apparently located right next door to the Sole Owner grocery, because a portion of their sign was visible. And yet, in the few years Lindahl was in business, none of their ads or city directory listings show that business was ever located on Lamar. So I still don't know what to make of that.
But those same city directories from that period DO list the addresses of all the Sole Owner stores, and sure enough, store #11 was located at "Lamar Ave, corner Kyle" — and that's the precise location shown here, above and below.
Thanks for solving this mystery, Adam. Well done!
The same building, as it looked in 1930, home to a Sole Owner grocery.
