The Gannon Building and Classic Car Night

Jerry and Gerda Schmieg stopped by to say hi.

On Wednesday evening, August 20th, doors to the Gannon Building were opened to the public for the very first time.

And there stood the owners, Rich Gannon and his wife Shelley, greeting hundreds of visitors, many of them by name.  Jim Michel, above, does cement work for the Gannons.

It was a Classic Car Night in Victoria and the draw has grown to over 1,000 people coming to downtown Victoria twice a month to visit, eat, walk around, and look at old cars.

It wasn’t announced or advertised, but it didn’t take long to hear that the Gannon Building was open that evening.

The building was constructed in 1950 as the Notermann-Weber Beer Distributorship.  Rich Gannon bought it around 1995 from a guy named Miller.

For about the last 20 years, there has been a Gannon Building in downtown Victoria.  At least that’s what everybody calls it. 

Some remodeling and maintenance was necessary.  Rich brought water and sewer service into the building, insulated it, repaired the heating, and did some general maintenance work.

Rich said a toymaker made him the toy tank trunk of the Gulf Refining Company.  On the side of the miniature truck’s door, it clearly exclaims, “Distributor, R. Gannon, Philadelphia, PA.”  Rich grew up in Philadelphia and went to college out east.

He stumbled across Victoria and the old beer distributorship building when he became a quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings in 1987.  He moved from Minnewashta Parkway to the Smithtown Bay area of Victoria in 2007.

Dan and Jean Klein are longtime residents of Victoria on Smithtown Bay.  Dan retired as CEO and president of KleinBank in 2009.

Original owners of the building were Arnold (Evelyn) Notermann and Harold (Laverne) Weber, old Victoria names from old Victoria families.  Evelyn and Harold werer siblings.

Gail and Vern Buller are longtime residents of Deer Run.  Vern is a Victoria Lion, among other things, and Gail is a sweetheart.

Jerry Hartman and Darryl Wrolson are not only hardworking volunteers for Classic Car Nights in Victoria, they are also brothers in law.

Nancy Schmieg, whose husband Steve has a 1968 Chevy Camaro, attended the show with grandchildren Brady, 10, and Bo, 8, children of their son Craig and his wife Amy who live in Waconia.

We ran into Carver County Commissioner Tom Workman in town that night and, no, they were not standing on the corner watching all the girls go by.

Editor Sue

Email:  Sue@PrintsPublishing.com

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