The Dobbs Building

The Dobbs building is one of Three Lakes' most iconic buildings. This building's evolution from the general store to what is now, a Century 21 and Subway, has always been important to the needs of the Three Lakes community. When people reminisce about their childhood here, the Dobbs Store is sure to come up in conversation as a pleasant memory.

Discover how a tornado ravaged Three Lakes and severely damaged the building.

The building remains a public place and is easily recognizable as it still stands tall on the corner in the middle of town. The top of the building still boasts the name F H Dobbs.

In 1921 Fred H. Dobbs left Conover where he had owned a grocery store with his brother, to open up his own store in Three Lakes. With his wife and children, Fred moved to Three Lakes where his family worked their store in a two-story wooden structure. This building had been built prior to 1900 as a general mercantile and one of the original owners was Frank Steiner, a well known name from the early days.

In 1902, Dobbs competed with four other mercantiles on the main street of Three Lakes, Superior Street, and by 1924 all but FS Campbell's was still doing well. Campbell's store, the only brick building in town, was lost to an explosion of questionable source in 1908. Once again the face of businesses in town changed when in September of 1924 a tornado tore across the Northwoods and ran through the downtown. Not only was the wood frame Dobb's building taken to the ground, it was where the only fatality of the disaster occurred, a young boy hiding in a stairwell.

The Dobbs family, not deterred, rebuilt the store with bricks instead of wood and reopened it for business. Until the last of the Dobbs family worked the now grocery store, it remained a mainstay, eventually the only grocery store in the downtown.

The building has hosted a number of businesses and presently houses the Century 21 Realty -Three Lakes office and a Subway.

Three Lakes Historical Society. The Pine, the Plow, and the Pioneer . Volume 1. Eagle River, WI. Hahn Printing, 1983.

Three Lakes Historical Society. The Pine, the Plow, and the Pioneer . Volume 2. Eagle River, WI. Hahn Printing, 1984.