The northwest corner of Catherine and Government streets first held a grocery store in 1868. The Mobile city directory that year listed the proprietor as Catherine McClenachan, a widow. On December 29th of that year, her daughter Mary Jane married Casimir Weinacker, and that corner has been owned by descendants ever since.
Weinacker and his family had escaped France during the February Revolution of 1848. The Weinackers came from the eastern edge of France known as Alsace Lorraine which has been ruled by both France and Germany over the years.
After landing in New Orleans, Weinacker ultimately made his way to Mobile where he would later serve as a cavalry officer in the Civil War.
During the 1870s as Mobile suffered under reconstruction, his occupation ranged from bartender (1870) to laborer (1871) to clerk (1873) to the operator of an oyster saloon on St. Louis Street in 1874. During this entire time, his residence was listed as the northwest corner of Government and Catherine streets.
Groceries and a Garden Saloon
In 1877, he and a partner were operating the Mystic Saloon on the northeast corner of Royal and Conti streets, but in 1879, he entered the profession his name would be associated with for the rest of his life: grocer. This change may have been the result of the death of his mother-in-law.
The census records indicate that in 1880, he and Mary Jane Weinacker had five children ranging from 6 months to age 11. The following year’s city directory reflects he was operating Cass’ Garden on the corner west side of Catherine Street, north of Government.
There are no images of Cass’ Garden which at times was listed as Cass’ Garden Saloon. A relative would later describe a large “thatched hut” which was a popular picnic spot for individuals and groups. The 1895 directory lists Mr. Weinacker as the proprietor of Cass’ Garden as well as being a grocer and liquor dealer. His garden was last listed in the 1900 edition.
The following year, Casimir Weinacker had expanded his retailing operations to include groceries, liquor, cigars and tobacco, and feed for horses and cattle. Sons James and Robert were listed as working as clerks.
The Next Generation
Mr. Weinacker had turned the business over to James, Robert and Richard in 1899, at which time the operation was named Weinacker Brothers. Mobile was growing, and in 1906 what had been a farm across Government Street was being developed into Flo Claire while countless homes were being constructed on tracts of land to the north and west.
Ice and fuel were added to the mix by 1907. It would be another decade before electric refrigerators arrived and all those new neighborhoods needed that ice.
A newspaper account in 1910 it reported “the one story building that had stood on the corner of Government and Catherine streets for some 50 years” was being demolished.
From Groceries to Baseball
Its replacement was a 16,000 square foot brick building. Weinackers’ was not only a grocery store, but contained a drug store, a dry goods store, and also offered “shoes, men’s hats, hardware and crockery.” It featured the novelty of “automatic cash registers. When purchases are made a ticket is printed with the time and amount of sale.”
As the number of cars on Mobile’s streets replaced horses, a single gas pump was added to the front of the building. Seven years later a gas station was constructed across Catherine Street.
A 1944 advertisement stated that Mobilians could shop here for “meats, vegetables, groceries, drugs, cosmetics, sodas, ice cream, cigars, hardware and dry goods.” The store offered a bakery, delicatessen, newsstand, and a full-service service station.
The large property also held the first lighted baseball diamond in Mobile. Robert Weinacker had played shortstop for a pro team and would become a co-owner of the Mobile Bears. He was instrumental in getting Babe Ruth and the Yankees to Mobile for an exhibition game.
A Million-Dollar Store Arrives
As new grocery stores arrived after World War II, Weinackers’ was apparently looking a bit dated. A new “Million Dollar Store” arrived on the site in 1952 with a parking lot for 750 cars. At the grand opening the giveaways included two RCA television sets, a Kelvinator refrigerator, a bicycle and luggage.
It held the first “self-service drug store” in Mobile manned by five pharmacists, a soda fountain with booth seating for 80 where diners could finish off a meal with a serving of Weinacker Brothers’ Ice Cream produced at their own plant.
The interior decoration featured various scenes of Bellingrath Gardens painted on pastel walls. The building also included a warehouse capable of storing 100 carloads of grocery products.
Across Catherine Street the old gas station with its tiled roof, was replaced by a “service station of tomorrow” with 21 pumps and five restrooms. The circular canopy was reminiscent of a flying saucer.
The End of Weinackers’
In 1965, a group of picketers plagued the store in an effort to unionize the employees. Robert Weinacker made it clear that if the vote was in favor of joining the union, he would close the business. The employees unionized and the store last appeared in the 1968 city directory.
Delchamps reopened in the space and eventually the 1952 structure was replaced in the mid 1980’s by a combination grocery and Harco Drugs location facing Catherine Street. The grocery business is a volatile one. Delchamps sold to Jitney Jungle and that entity sold out to Winn-Dixie within three years. The store received a welcome makeover and expanded into the former Harco location.
In July of 2024, it was announced that the Winn-Dixie would close and be remodeled as an Aldi Food Market. Despite all of the changes over more than 150 years, the Weinacker name will remain.
