Cramer Building

224 River Street North

The Cramer Building at 224 River Street N. has been part of Delano’s commercial history since the late 1800s and was long associated with one of the city’s oldest meat markets. Joseph Cramer operated a meat market on River Street as early as 1879, later joined by his son Frank, and by the mid-1880s Cramer was constructing a new brick building at the site. The meat market tradition continued under J. M. Wandok and later Everett LaFave, whose market remained a familiar River Street business for decades. In 1972, nearly a century after Cramer began his business, the building became home to Delano TV and subsequently housed a variety of businesses. Today, the historic storefront is home to LuLu’s Retail Therapy, which opened in January 2020 and offers women’s clothing and accessories, baby items, home décor, and gifts.

The history of the building at 224 River Street goes back a long way, and that history also is the narrative of one of the oldest meat markets in Delano.

Joseph Cramer was the proprietor of a meat market below the bridge on River street as early as 1879. The 1880 census lists Joseph as a butcher and the owner of a meat market, with his son Frank working with him as a butcher. Both were still there in 1885, when the Delano Eagle reported that Joseph Cramer was taking the lead in a building boom on River street, and “soon would have a fine new (brick) block.”

Oct. 2, 1879 newspaper ad

A 1894 map of Delano shows a brick building, a meat market, at this location.

In 1893 an article in the Delano Eagle described F. A. Cramer as being “the successor to the oldest meat market in the city.”

F. A. Cramer’s Meat Market, 1897

In 1903 J. M. Wandok purchased the building from Mrs. Joseph (Augusta) Cramer. Wandok was already occupying it as a meat market at that time. Wandok built the brick building just to the south of his shop in 1908; it became a bank, and then the post office. Wandok had retired by 1920 according to the census records. Louis A. Kuehn was working as a butcher in 1922 and is enumerated on the 1930 census as a butcher in Delano.

In 1936 Everett LaFave opened his butcher shop in Delano; he had been working there as a meat cutter in Delano since 1933.

April 9, 1906 newspaper ad

LaFave’s Meat Market

The Mainstreet, a special edition of the Delano Eagle published in 1946, described LaFave’s Meat Market as being next to the post office. Everett LaFave continued working as a butcher into the 1960’s.

In 1972 Jeff Merriman opened the new Delano TV store in the LaFave building on River street, nearly 100 years after Joseph Cramer first opened his meat market. During the following years a number of different businesses occupied the building.

1930 Map

The building became the home of LuLu’s Retail Therapy, opened by Laurie Schaust in January, 2020. Lulus specializes in women's clothes and accessories, and also sells baby items, home decor and gift items.

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