“Someday, your corner’s going to be a beautiful spot.” What he didn’t tell me, was that in the summer time, it was a summer resort area, but in the winter time it wasn’t that good.  But we did move out there on October 1, 1941, and it was a year after I got married.  We started the station, and like I said, the first year we almost starved to death because people would come out right after school on Memorial Day and live in these almost like cottages, if you look around Gray’s Bay and so forth, you can see how they’ve all be remodeled and they were just summer places.  And Labor Day, they would go back To Minneapolis or St. Paul or whatever, and it was just like a ghost town.  The only thing that kept us alive is the people who lived in those big homes and they had chauffer driven cars and so forth.  
Magrew:    When you talk about that first station, it is not where your station is now, is it?Abel:    No.  That’s correct, Kathy. It was kitty corner, on the corner where the Deephaven drug store is now.  Just kitty-corner across the street from me.  Where I am was just a vegetable and fruit stand.Magrew:    And who owned it?Abel:    That was owned by Mr. Millar.  W.B. Millar was his name. And he owned that big house next to where the bowling alley is called Balmy Doon.  Towards the latter years, the Chief of Police Dick Kucera lived there for a while.Magrew:    Wasn’t there a business that operated out of that house? Abel:    There was. There was a lady. It changed hands several times after the original owners died and a lady had a ceramic shop there.  She made ceramics, like a little factory, and made pottery and so forth.

Magrew:    In Balmy Doon? Abel:    In Balmy Doon house, yes, right.  She had people working for her and she was an artist.  You know, in making pottery and figurines, and so forth. Magrew:    Do you remember her name.Abel:    No, I don’t.  She moved on. I believe they moved to Red Wing, down where the pottery place is.Magrew:    Was there also a furniture business in that house? Abel:    Not that I recall.  Magrew:    And that would have been besides the station you took over in 1941 and the vegetable stand and the house, is that all you could see?Abel:    That’s all there was, Kathy, right.  Behind where the drug store is now, that was just a pasture and across the street, on the other corner next to T-Wrights, there was a little three one-half acre farm where they grew vegetables and you could stop on your way home and pick up carrots or whatever was in season.  That was on the corner.  And on the other side where the hardware store is now and the Super Valu store Coopers, what was just a pasture and a woods. Horses were grazing there, it was a pasture there.  They had these horses that would jump over hurdles and things because the people that lived in the big house on Rainbow Drive, the wife of the owner loved horses and she would get out there and have these jumping horses.Magrew:     So that was a part of their estateAbel:    Yes, that was called the A.C. White Estate, right.  He was with the Dayton Company.Magrew:    And do you remember the white posts, the brick posts that was the entry?Abel:    They are still there.  That was the entrance way and when you drive in there, Rainbow Drive is still called that.  When you drive in there a little, there is a tea house, or guest house and that’s the place you would stop before you went into the main house and one of the servants would come down an find out who you are and whether they wanted to see you or not.Magrew:    Was there a phone in there?Abel:    Yes, they called it a tea house, and sometimes if you were waiting and you were lucky enough, they would bring you some tea or something to drink. It 3was sort of a stopping gate before you went to the main house. Magrew:    I’ve been told that there is a house on Highway 101, a little bit south of Minnetonka Boulevard that was a caretaker’s cottage for that.Abel:    That’s right. It’s still there.  It’s about a three story house, Kathy, and it’s right across from where the tennis club is, Minnetonka Tennis Club.Magrew:    Was that there always, or was it moved to that site?Abel:    No, there was there all the time.  Most of the time they had black people, you know the wife would be doing all the house work and the cooking and they wanted them far enough away so there was more privacy.  Usually the man did the chauffeuring, drove the car, and did the yard work and so forth.  It was all one estate there, it was called the A.C. White Estate.  

(Edited by Jan Cook)