824 Lake Shore Dr.  

? - Jul 1911 - D. A. Bradley

Jul 1911 - ? M. M. Stiles

Culver Citizen 12 July 1911 - D. A. Bradley last week sold to M. M. Stiles of Plymouth the corner lot at the foot of "Bunker Hill " with a frontage home on this corner.

As John Houghton notes this is a play on words and geographics. This was actually 77' to the railroad and really to the now Lake Shore Dr. which existed then.

1956 - May 9 - Root Beer Stand to Open Friday

Don Jones of Plymouth has purchased a lot on Lake Shore Drive near the east end of the Town Park and is completeing the installation of an A. and W. Root Beer Stand.

He plans to be open for business on friday of this week.

Mr. Jones also operates Jack's Grill andf the A. and W. Root Beer stand in Plymouth.

1956 - A & W Root Beer Stand Donald "Casey " Jones

May 1959 - A & W Root Beer Stand - Mr. and Mrs. J. C. / Mervin Lewis

Culver Citizen May 6, 1959 - New Managers to Take over A & W Drive In Friday

Mr. & Mrs. Carl Eby of Plymouth will take over the management of the A & Root Beer Drive-in on Lakeshore Dr.

The Drive-in located acrosee frm the Beach Lodge, was formerly operated by Mr. and Mrs. J. C. Lewis of LaPorte.

The Eby's and their two smalls sons, ages 1 and 2 years, both born on the Fourth of July will continue to live in Plymouth where they operate another Drive-in.

Jan Eby states that the Lewis' never ran the resturant, but simply owned the building briefly before his parents Carl and Myrna Eby bought it.

Bea Stephenson states that: Actually, the Lewis' did run the A & W. Their daughter & son both worked there in the summer months right along wth parents. Many of us got to know the teenagers as they were same ages of those graduating in 1960. I'm ' sure there are those in Culver who remember their names - I "think" the son was Bill, but cannot remember his sister's name.

May 1959-1982 - A & W Root Beer Stand - Carl H. & Myrna Jo Eby

May 23, 1962 - "Casey Jones" Part Of History Of Recently Reopened Culver A & W

Most people think of "Casey Jones" in connection with early American railroad sagas. But the 'Casey Jones" of our story was involved with root beer and trucking.

Back in 1956 Donald "Casey" Jones decided his A & W Root Beer Drive-In should be in Culver instead of Plymouth.

A lesser man might have considered selling the building and buying another, or building a new one. Not Casey. He moved lock, stock and barrel (root beer of course) to Culver. Building, foundation and equipment were moved the 12 miles from one town to another, by truck.

After his exploit, Casey grew tired of the humdrum existance of a root beer proprietor, and sold the A & W to Mr. and Mrs. Mervin Lewis of LaPorte who operated it until 1959 when the present owners, Mr. and Mrs Carl Eby bought it.

The Eby's reopened for their fourth season Saturaday, April 14. They say it is a real challenge and alot of fun as well, they expect to have their most successf ul season this year. they can accommodate 30 cars.

The history of the A & W company itself is very interesting.
In 1919, in Lodi, Calif., Roy W Allen started a root beer stand. Today, that stand has grown into the world's largest drive-in, chain — the A & W Root Beer chain with some 2300 franchised units.

During the early 1920s, Mr. Allen formed a partnership with Fred Wright; hence A & W's name from Allen & Wright. They began opening franchised A & W outlets in California. Utah, Idaho, and Allen, who his partner, a national Texas. In 1926, Mr. Allen who had since bought out began franchising on level. By 1933 there were 181 A & Ws in operation, mostly in the Midwest.

After the war. the chain grew rapidly until there were 425 locations in 1950. At that point. Mr.and Mrs. Gene Huriz purchased the business, and it has since: grown by leaps and bounds. Today,there are A & Ws all over, the United States and Canada, in Alaska, Hawaii, and West Germnany. Further expansion in Europe is planned by a new company, formed for that purpose. By 19_5, an estimated 4000 A & W's will lie in operation, serving the now famous root beer and many other favorite food items

Jan Eby's memories:

Their son Jan claims the Eby's purchased the Root Beer Stand sometime in 1957 tho the above articles is found and states the transfer date as being 1959.

During this time the Eby's also owned an A & W in Agros and Walkerton, Carl ran those and Myrna ran the Culver one.

In 1964 the Eby's tore the older smaller original building down and re-built a larger one and inculded a basement also which the original building did not have.

They kept the orirignal carport portion tho and it remains in use today.

During the years from 1976-1980 Jan and his mother split the running of the buisness in half between them.

1982-2003,Jun - Eby's Root Beer Stand - Jan & Sandra Eby

Jan Eby son of the original owners - who were from Argos. He and his brother took over the business when their parents retired. They worked their with their parents when teenagers.

1984 - They ended the 30 year affilliation with A & W franchise as the company started requiring "salad bars' in their resturants and was shifting to being into the malls and we went "independent" . It didn't hurt us a bit. Business increased every year from 1982 to 2003

The A & W changed their recipe for Root Beer so they Eby's were able to keep the old formula and continue to make their own root beer as they had in the past. "The ingredients weren't coming through an A & W supplier. They told us what to use. All we had to do (when we dropped the A & W franchise) was get rid of the logo. Nothing else changed

They also changed their sandwich menu totatly thus allowing the names of the sandwich menu to remain the same also. They kept the original names for a few years and started re-vamping the menu and remaining the sandwiches but in essence changing it very little along the way.

Not much on the menu changed through the years, says Eby, which he says followed the, "if it wasn't broke, don't fix it" philosophy. A few things were added here and there to spice things up, however, he recalls, such as “Top Ten Reasons to Go to Eby's Drive-In” lists, giveaway puppets for customers' dashboards, the "19 coney dogs in one sitting" eating record, bicycle giveaways, and the like.

However, Eby says he and his family, after 22 years of owning the stand, tired of "a lot of hours when all your buddies are on the lake having fun and you're busting butt 15 hours a day."

He and Sandy's own children out of college, they decided it was time to slow down a bit, so they prepared to sell the restaurant

Original Root Beer Stand

2003,Jun-2013, Jun- Mark S. & Rebecca A. Damore, Phillip/Catherine Douglas

So, when Mark Damore found out in 2003 that the root beer stand was for sale, he jumped at the chance to buy it. Together with business partner Phil Douglas of Illinois - purchased the restaurant in May, 2003.

He re-dubbed it The Original Root Beer Stand, noting many people in town simply called the business "the root beer stand,"

They have changed it little only adding a new paint job, menu board and a neon logo sign bearing the new name 'Original Root Beer Stand' - as tho many over the years simply refered to it as the "Root Beer Stand' nothing more and nothing lesse. The added a neon sign of better recogniton.

The menu has not changed only with the insertion of fresh produce, a few new sandwiches and meats.

Heather overmyer manages the root beer stand and has been an employee since her freshman year in hign school
His smartest move, Damore says, was keeping manager Heather Overmyer, who's been working there for 25 years.

"That was key," he says. "That place runs like a finetuned machine. I do the books and my wife does payroll. Heather runs the rest of it and makes schedules.", which currently has a staff of 28, many of them part-time.


Besides the "Orginial Root Beer Stand" Damore haa another buisness 'Original Chicago Produce Company' which was established in 1966 and has been in business for 44 years and packages and ships fruit around the country and supplies the Chicago eateries with their produce.

2015 - Feb 17 - NOTICE OF HEARING PETITION NO: 2015-001P
DATE OF HEARING: February 17, 2015
TIME OF HEARING: 6:30PM
Date January 26, 2015
PLEASE TAKE NOTICE:
That a petition has been filed by: Brian McCormack and Mark Damore Sr to properly rezone to Commercial (C-i) from the current zoning of Commercial (C-2) the following parcels:
50-21-16-401-602.000-014 820 Lakeshore Drive,
50-21-16-401-524,000-014 824 Lakeshore Drive,
50-21-16-302-453.000-014 817 Lakeshore Drive, and
50-21-16-302-454.000-014 819 Lakeshore Drive.

2015,Jun-2024 - M & R Investments LLC / Mark S. Damore

2022 - Major improvements as to a concrete retaining wall on the north end of the parking lot, a concrete parking lot and fencing to the top of the front wall on the sidewalk / steet side to the south.

BRADLEYS ADD LOT 5
LOT 5 BRADLEYS ADD
BRADLEYS ADD LOT 6