Photos courtesy of Richard Church, Mike Kruse and the Freeborn County Historical Museum

Editor’s note: This is the fourth part of a five-part series.

For just over a decade, the Albert Lea business started by Robert Church was located on West College Street. His printing firm was in a building just across the street from the Broadway Theater and not far from the corner where Church took many photos of the city’s Territorial Centennial Parade on June 3, 1949.

By 1957, according to a listing in the city directory, Church Lithograph Inc. had moved to 233 E. Clark St.

For many years the large building at this address had been the location of the American Gas Machine Co. After World War II, this firm became a part of Queen Stove Works and operations were relocated to West Front Street near the railroad tracks. Within a few years, several other firms moved into the building next to what was then St. Theodore’s Catholic Church.

A listing in the 1961 city directory shows the following business activities were based in this building: Tryholm Ford, Thompson & Wulff Transfer and Storage, Albert Lea Electroplating, Kreiger Beverage and Church Lithograph Inc., where Robert Church was president and his wife, Lucille, was vice president.

Next: Information about the third and present location of the Church firm and its new owners, plus photos of two presidential candidates who visited Albert Lea in 1948 and 1952.