Oleography: Ole Store, 1915-2021

Finishing a month of St. Olaf photography with some re-oleography. Click here to see it.

The Ole Store Restaurant has been at the edge of the St. Olaf campus, under various names, since 1889. In 1915 professor Ole Felland recorded it as "W.E. Johnson's Store." When I was a kid I recall the right half as still more of a store; at one point Olaf kids could eat there with their meal cards.

I reshot it 106 years later, very early on a Sunday morning. I was quite close to that house, for a long time, with suspicious equipment looking into the windows. Now, I know that's fine (and windows are just a few black pixels), but let's just say passersby elsewhere haven't always thought so. Hence the early Sunday morning. So I tensed a little when a man walked out of the house right toward me. But he just said, "Doing some history project, huh?" and went on his way. I love Nerdfield.

Thanks to the St. Olaf College Archives for the lovely photograph. Follow the instructions to pan and zoom and jump through time.

Sunrise Sunday : rephotographers :: Christmastime : Jews. Me : insanely early :: clock : 6:58 a.m. Robert Wellman Campbell, "Oleography: Ole Store 1915-2021," RSS Longa, 29 May 2025, public domain via CC0 1.0.