Saying farewell to the former A Plus Tire building in Redfield
By Shiloh Appel
On Tuesday morning, October 10, 2017, the former A Plus Tire building on 628 West second Street was dismantled by Odland Construction and the City of Redfield. The lot that the building stood on is owned by the Redfield Area Development Corporation and will be utilized for other purposes once the rubble is cleared.
Meanwhile, Redfield residents and curious onlookers have watched the familiar building come down. According to former owner, Gary Schelske, the building had served many different purposes over the decades. The building was originally built as a horse-drawn well-drilling outfit and had a complete stable, horse barn and hayloft. It then became a creamery after WWII. Schelske's family moved into the upstairs apartments in 1948 and worked at the creamery during this time. The creamery went through quite a few different transfers in ownership and it's name was changed four times before 1970, when the last dairy co-op, Spink County Dairies, lost financing.
In 1974, the abandoned building was transformed by the new OK Rubber Welders owner, Gary Halls, into a tire shop. Schelske became manager of the shop, later known as the OK Tire Shop, in 1977 and retired in March of 2016. Now known as the A Plus Tire building, new manager, Ben Deuter, utilized the building for a short time before moving the growing business to the former Titan building at 17190 US Hwy 281 in July of this year.
The building stood empty for only a few months before it was dismantled.
