The Marblehead Mile (Article 19) - Lorrie Halblaub

In this series we are taking an historical look at an area that covers approximately a mile of Main Street in downtown Marblehead. Heading east from the Village limits, we will discover the facts and the stories of how Marblehead became what it is today. [This is the 19^th article in the series.]

302 W. Main Street  circa 1910

The next two buildings on the north side of Main Street share a connected history.  The one on the right, 302 West Main St., was built first and is made of wood. In this picture, it was owned by Richard “Dick” Weston. The left side of the store downstairs sold general merchandise and the right side became a Post Office from 1897-1914, when Weston was the postmaster. Frank Kukay Jr. and his wife Anna Kopchack bought the building in 1915, and Dick Weston turned to farming.

Frank’s father, Frank Sr., according to the 1910 Census, emigrated to Marblehead from Austria/Slovakia in 1887, and was a foreman at the quarry. Frank Jr. was born in Marblehead. His wife, Anna Kopchock, emigrated from Slovakia.  Frank Jr. and his family of 5 children (two others died in infancy) lived upstairs above the store. The left side downstairs sold everything from clothes to tires into the 1980s. Eventually the space on the right that used to be the Post office became a saloon. It got the first liquor license in Ottawa County, and was the first to sell alcohol in Marblehead after Prohibition ended. The last barkeep was Clarence Kukay, Frank Jr.’s son, and it was called CBK Bar.  The building was sold in 1995 and the whole downstairs became one store.  For a while it was the Marblehead Emporium, a gift shop. Today it is Wee Willys Sports Pub, run by Willy Steinbrick.

306 W. Main 2026  [incl. 310 W. Main]

In the 1940’s Frank and Anna Kukay built a brick building next to their store to the west, at 306 W. Main. The new building had two commercial spaces downstairs and new housing for the family upstairs. The space on the right was Kukay’s Café, run by Frank and Anna’s daughter Helen.  Then her brother Louie and his wife Lucille ran it until 2000. Louie’s son, Dan Kukay, who now owns the building, did extensive remodeling and the space on the right became Avery’s Café and is now Latitudes Café.  Dan remembers when he was a child and lived upstairs over the restaurant. There was no air conditioning in the building and it was hot upstairs during the summer.

However, in the winter they were grateful for the warmth from the restaurant below.

While there has always been a restaurant on that right side of the brick building, the left side saw many different businesses, including: R. G. Carroll Insurance, Sal Casuccio’s barbershop, a framing shop, a gift shop, a real estate agency, the Marblehead Library Committee’s Ex Libris Bookshop, a coffee shop, and now a bakery. The upstairs was made into rental apartments that are 310 W. Main. It is amazing that a Kukay descendant still lives in this building after 86 years of ownership!