Built in 1887, this is the oldest intact building still standing in its original location on Main Ave. It has been the site of many historic establishments. Several families have lived and raised their children in the upstairs apartments.
The southernmost two-story portion of this building was erected by Swedish born Eric Forsberg in 1887. The Forsberg family operated a restaurant on the first floor in the late 1880s. The Forsberg family resided upstairs. Dr. Pratt’s son Herbert, of the Loma Ranch, would one day marry Eric Forsberg’s daughter, Helen.
The Fallbrook Masonic Lodge No. 317 was established in 1893 and began renting the upstairs at $60 a month for their meeting hall. In 1894 the Masons bought the building and continued to use the upstairs as their meeting hall until the 1940s when they designed and built a new hall on Rocky Crest Road, where it is today.
The Fallbrook Observer Newspaper was being printed downstairs starting in October 1893 and continuing into 1894.
The Women’s Saturday Afternoon Club (a.k.a. The Woman’s Club) began meeting upstairs in this building in November 1907 until 1915 when the Woman’s Club bought Crane Hall to put on their own property one block north on Main.
The pharmacist Jess Hardy, who had his main drugstore a couple of blocks south, rented the ground floor of this building as a silent movie theater for a few years, before he retired in 1918.
The northernmost two-story portion of this building was added in 1948 by Ray & Viola Minkler. The Minklers, who had several children, merged the two buildings to accommodate their furniture business and to enlarge the upstairs living quarters.
Dr. Moroni Jameson, a physician, then bought the building in 1949, utilizing the ground floor for his office and the upstairs as living quarters for his large family. Dr. Jameson was also on staff of the Palomar and Fallbrook hospitals. The Jameson name is still on the northern portion of the building.
Many families have lived in this building over the past 134 years. It is a rare old building with occasional unexplained noises and events.
Tom Frew,
FHS Historian
References:
Fallbrook Historic Resources Inventory prepared for County of San Diego by Susan H. Carrico and S. Kathleen Flanigan, September 1991.
Forsberg & Jameson genealogies prepared by Fallbrook Historical Society
Fallbrook Observer newspaper issue dated October 27, 1893
Fallbrookfreemason.org
Fallbrook Enterprise, Apr 13, 1915
Fallbrook Enterprise, Jan 4, 1952, “Dream comes true for Club members”
fallbrookwomansclub.org
