Larry Feala cleans up the front of the present VFW Hall. Ken Kelberlau and Gene Sic were also involve in the clean up.

Wind reveals Main Street history to be restored

by Mary Le Arneal
Published 4/28/21

The McGinn’s Grocery Store was a fixture in North Bend for 35 years. Started by Pat McGinn and his son Marvin in 1937 on the east side of Main Street, the store moved to the southwest corner of Main and Seventh streets in 1940, expanding to the south a few years later. It offered groceries and meat processing as well as home deliveries. It was open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. except Sundays when it closed at noon.

Larry Feala, Gene Sic and Ken Kelberlau clean and repair the sign at the VFW Hall.

In 1972 Marvin McGinn sold the store to Herb Heywood of Snyder who continued to operate a grocery store on the site until the early ‘80s when Heywoods built a new building a few blocks west. In 1990 the VFW bought the Main Street building and remodeled it for a meeting room with a large space for events and bingo.

According to Mike McGinn, his parents put in the neon outlined sign in shortly after they bought the building in the ‘40s. In the 1960s there was a fire inside the store and wiring for the sign needed to be replaced. It became too expensive to fix, so they covered the front of the building with 2x4s and sheets of metal. McGinn says they put up the oval sign on the corner reading “McGinn’s IGA.”

This March North Bend experienced some very windy days, so much so that the metal and wood were ripped off the front of the VFW building exposing about half of the McGinn sign. While cleaning it up, it was found there were connections to neon lights still in place.

“No one can remember the neon being lit up,” VFW member Ze Heller said.

Brad Martindale worked at McGinn’s store his junior and senior years of high school. He graduated in 1967 and continued working there while in college until he joined the Navy. Martindale doesn’t remember the neon sign, in his youth or when working there.

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