Charles Schuller, owner of the first hardware store in Robbinsdale, started in the farm machinery business on what is now West Broadway in about 1898. He had been raised on a farm in Crystal. After living elsewhere for awhile, he came back to Robbinsdale. In 1904, he erected a store building near 41st Avenue North and West Broadway. The Schuller family with five children lived in the 11 rooms above the store. In those days such things as a horse harness, stove black, kerosene lantern, buggy, wagon, automobile, implement, binder twine and grind stone were sold at Schuller’s. An old flying Dutchman complete with the wings on top of the store advertise the fact that a certain brand a farm equipment was sold there. One little girl of the day is said to have rushed home after seeing the winged figure atop the store and informed her mother that she saw Jesus on top of Mr. Schuller’s store. In the old days “trading” was really trading in many instances farmers exchanged butter, eggs, cord-wood and other country products for store goods. These in turn were used by the family or sold to other customers. The store was piped for gas and then electricity came in. The Schuller Hardware and the houses on either side of it burned to the ground in the winter 1925. The family escaped unscathed and Schuller rebuilt about a block away. The business grew into the Schuller and Schlosser Appliance store that operated at 41st and West Broadway for decades.
