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Mount Prospect: La Historia De
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Location: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10
2 Northwest Highway - Submarine Express
If you look down Main Street a little bit you will see an oddly shaped sub shop that is set back from the road. This unusual little building was not built to be a sandwich shop, it has a much more interesting history than that. The history of this building starts back in 1882 when John C. Moehling moved to Mount Prospect. He came to town and purchased the small general store that sat at the corner of Main and Northwest Highway from Christian Geils. This general store is still standing in Mount Prospect, however it has been moved to Pine Street and will be the last stop on your tour. Moehling was able to thrive in this very small community because of his ability to innovate. Whenever he saw a need in the community he would make sure that he was the one who would fill it.
Soon after purchasing the general store he expanded to also selling seed, feed, grain and coal. Realizing a need for better services in the community to attract more business, he convinced a young blacksmith to move to town and built him his first shop. He petitioned to have a post office in the community and made sure that the post office was located in his store. He acted as the first Postmaster for Mount Prospect and ran the office from 1885 to 1897.He realized that milk from dairy cows could be very profitable and so he traveled out of state and brought back dairy cows to sell to the local farmers.
He was right and these farmers later made Mount Prospect one of the largest suppliers of dairy products to Chicago. Moehling was very good at changing with the times, which brings us to the sub shop. This little building was first built as a gas station, one of the first in Mount Prospect. It was built in1927 when cars were becoming a major source of transportation. John C. Moehling gave this new gas station to his son, John Philip Moehling to get him started in life. The store was the height of style when it was built. The gas pumps had ornamental tops and the station offered full service car care. The station remained open for decades but with the construction of the Kennedy and the Edens, this ceased to be the best location for a gas station. Eventually it was sold and went through a number of uses, arriving finally as the unassuming Submarine Express that you see today.