This is the way our town looks in 1998.   Our Main Street starts on the east at state highway 39. If you turn and drive west you will see a scene similar to this.  Of course this picture was taken in late summer.   In winter you might see snow on the street.

Historically, Kiron business men wasted no time in getting into the automobile business shortly after the turn of the century.  At one time several car companies had a sales outlet in the town.  About 1920 the Chevrolet dealership gained strength and the building you see on the right was built for its showroom.   Many years ago the building ceased selling new cars but the building has continously been connected with the servicing and maintenance of motorized vehicles.  Today, Sandberg Automotive establishment carries on the mechanic traditions in this building.

Further up the street past the Sandberg building is the Lindstrom Agricultural Supply business.  The Lindstroms have been associated with the community since the late 1800's.  From selling Studebaker automobiles to operating gasoline service pumps to making rural fuel deliveries to stocking animal feed supplements to carrying an extensive variety of hardware supply, these folks have done it all.  If you stop by, chances are you will find Jim minding the shop.

Further west past Lindstroms is the corner where the first retail outlet was built in the town in 1899.  It carried on the business of a general store selling groceries, work clothes, and just about anything one would need in the house.  The building was razed in the early eighties to be replaced by a commodous eating establishment called the Food Palace.  The diminishing area population has made the restaurant business only marginally profitable but a succession of operators have given it quite a go.

On the south side of the street is another one of the establishments that has roots back to the early days of the town.  There was such a building boom in the first decade of the town's existence that at one time there were three lumber yards owned by outside interests.  For reasons not exactly clear, some locals thought they would be better served with a grain elevator and lumber store establishment that was owned by local farmers and businessmen.  So successful was the management of the local business that it survived while the other three eventually went out of business once the building boom slowed down.  Today, the Kiron Lumber Store proprietor, John Schultz, continues to serve the construction interests in the area.

Kiron was fortunate to have some individuals who thought it was important to have a local bank.  The state chartered Kiron State Bank has been housed in a building on the northwest corner of the towns main intersecting streets since the beginning.  It started out as a single story brick building.  Not many years later, that was replaced by a two story brick building.  The telephone companies switchboard was one of the activities housed on the second floor.  When the telephone company switched to the dial phone system in the fifties, the banks second story was vacated and the bank underwent a remodeling back to a single story.  The bank has changed ownership a few times in the last quarter century and its name has changed but it has always remained solvent and open to its depositors.

Today there is a fireplug and a street sign standard at this corner.  What is missing is the drinking water faucet.  Many a local citizen will remember stopping at the corner and getting a drink of nice cold water on a hot Iowa summer day.

The large two story building further down the street past the flag over the postoffice is the Lundberg building.  Axel Lundberg had a house full of daughters.  One of them named Anna showed talent for the womens fashion industry so Axel sent her to school in eastern Iowa and when she came back he built her this building so she would have some place to do her sewing.  Now Anna was fond of the town's most energetic and ambitious young man who happened to be Ed Clauson.  Ed was the kind of young fellow who was not afraid to try his hand at any line of work.  He had recieved good postoffice training from the Norelius men and so Ed moved the postoffice into the first floor and Anna ran her clothes factory upstairs.  Marriage was just a matter of time and the young couple established residence on the second floor.  Since Ed also was a mortician, this was also the location of the town's funeral parlor for many years with the couple and their young children having to share quarters with a few "temporary guests" who were brought up the stairs for short visits prior to the departing services.

By October many trees have lost their leaves and fall is definitely in the air.  On the right side of the street in this scene is the location of Kiron's Original Opera House.  It burned down many, many years ago and eventually the site became the home of the Kollbaum Brothers Blacksmith and Welding business.  For many years the Kollbaum's were one of the largest J. I. Case implement dealers in the western half of the state.  They also handled lessor known brands with New Idea being the most prominent.  The machinery line of the Lundell's of Meridan and Cherokee, Iowa was another of their brands.

The Lundell name has been associated with the Kiron area since about 1880 when the pioneer members of the family came from the Skaraborgs area of Sweden.  The local Lundell's are also very inventive and have used the old Kollbaum building in recent years as one of their manufacturing sites.

The next building on the right side of the street is the Kiron Baptist Church.  Started in 1869 in the dugout home of Carl Frodig and his wife Sara from Figeholm, Sweden, the church first existed as a country church located on a hilltop on the Anderson farm in Stockholm township.  It was moved to the new town of Kiron in the winter of 1899-1900 and replaced with a hugh church building in 1908.  So well spoken was the reputation of the new church, that the 'national' Swedish Baptist yearly convention came to Kiron in 1912!!  Age took its toll on the building and in 1968 it was replaced with its current structure.

Other buildings visible on either side of the street are some of the well kept residences in the town.   At the far end of the street is the site of the old Kiron Evangelical Free Church.  It was razed during the 1970's and replaced with the K.E.L.M.  apartment complex.  These smaller sized apartments are designed to make it convienent and comfortable for elderly local citizens to maintain their own living quarters and still be close to friends and family.  This facility has proven to be quite popular and there usually is  a waiting list of prospective seniors desiring to live there.

Across the street from KELM is the site of the old school building. The original building was started in the early teens and the first high school class graduated in 1920 with two graduates.  One of these was Leslie Clauson who graduated from the engineering school at Iowa State and went on to become the Chief Engineer of the Iowa State Department of Transportation.  High school classes stopped with the class of 1956 and elementary classes stopped over 20 years ago.  Today the site has been converted to the town park with a shelter house for picnics and the old school yards set up with swings, slides, seesaws, and other attractions for the kiddies.  There are horseshoe pits and a basketball hoop for those a little older and there is a large flat area for group sports.

Coming up for the future is the development of the area at the other end of town where the organized baseball, fast pitch softball and 10 man softball are played.  The lighted field is being incorporated into a much larger play area with a larger picnic shelter house being the first structure being built.

Thank you for coming along on this little tour.  There is much more we haven't shown you.  Stop by the next time you pass this way.   Three hundred residents feel blessed to live here and are ready to welcome you to their town.  They bid you farewell.