Metropolitan Meat Market

George Gohn was one of the first to arrive at Alder Gulch in 1863, where he and Conrad Kohrs set up a meat market in a log cabin. Alkali dust sifted through the chinks and covered the meat, prompting Gohn to experiment with various other locations until he settled on this site in 1880. When fire destroyed much of the block in 1888, only Gohn rebuilt.

The present building, completed that year, long stood solitary on this section of Wallace Street. Decorative pilasters, brackets, and imitation quarried stone highlight the cast-iron storefront manufactured by George Mesker of Evansville, Indiana. Recent interior renovation included restoration of the tin ceiling.

In the process, owners discovered a hidden treasure behind a plastered drywall: Gohn’s elaborate oak meat cooler with beveled mirrors intact. This unusual example of 1880s state-of-the-art equipment stands sixteen feet high. Gohn advertised that his cooler was always well stocked with beef, veal, pork, game fowl, and mutton and that his peddling wagons were “run regularly up and down the gulch.

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