News
Suchan Building continues in its 72nd year
Scott Wagar
05/21/2013
The Suchan building is turning 72 years old this year and has an interesting history in Bottineau which started with agriculture and moved forward to apartments and antiques.
In October of 1941, Walter J. Peterson opened a new building for an implement business, the W.J. Peterson International Harvester Company what is today the Suchan apartment building.
The Bottineau Courant wrote an article about the new structure for its grand opening on Oct 14, 1941.
“The new home is located just one half block south of the present Peterson building and directly across the street from where Bottineau’s new armory is now being built,” stated the Courant. The new building will be strictly modern in every detail. It is a two story brick structure with dimensions of 50 feet by 80 feet. The entire ground story will be devoted to housing the Peterson Implement Co., which will include a modern display and sales service, a complete parts service and a complete repair service. With its new and convenient facilities the W.J. Peterson implement company will offer definitely improved service to farmers of this territory.
“The entire second or top story of the building has been leased by the Bottineau County Agricultural Conservation Association and will be occupied by the Bottineau County Agent and his AAA force as soon as they can move in sometime this month,” the Bottineau Courant added. “In it new quarters the AAA will have distinctly separate conference room, a work room, a public meeting room for AAA and extension gatherings and offices for the county agent and the county committee.”
Peterson was born on Dec. 31, 1908 to John and Ester Peterson. He was raised on the family’s farm in Souris and graduated from Souris High School. He went on to NDSU in Fargo and went on to marry Effie Hembroff, who was also raised on her family’s farmstead near Souris.
Once married, Peterson went to work in his father implement shop in Souris, which was an International Harvester dealership. After having two children, Peterson moved his family to Velva where he managed a Coast to Coast Store, but moved to Bottineau where he established the Peterson Implement Company, dealing in International Harvester equipment. The building was located across from the creamery.
Peterson’s business was such a success he built and opened his new structure in 1941. By 1951 and with two more children, Peterson and his family moved out to Oregon where he became a real estate agent.
In and around this time, Edward Suchan became involved in the Peterson’s building, which would become known as the TBA building.
Suchan was born on Nov. 14, 1914 in Callaway, Minn. At the age of three months he moved with his parents, John and Elizabeth Suchan, to Bottineau County where they settled on a farm two and half miles west of Bottineau.
Suchan attended school in Bottineau, became a farmer in 1936 and married Myrtle Norenberg the same year he started farming.
Edward and Myrtle had three children, but Myrtle passed away just seven years into their marriage. However, Suchan married again in 1945 to Charlotte Bonde and the couple had three boys.
In 1956, Suchan founded the TBA supply store on Highway 5 in the eastern part of the city. In the later part of the 1950s Suchan purchased the Peterson building and moved the TBA store to that location.
The structure soon became known as the TBA building, which Suchan operated until 1967 when he sold the business to Laurence and Lila Marsden.
The Marsdens operated the business in the Suchan building for sometime, but eventually moved one block down to the east on Seventh Street (the present day fitness building across from the Post office) and once again to Highway 5 where TBA Supply is presently located.
Since the 1950s, apartments have been located on the second floor of the Suchan building. However, for a time, the TBA building stood empty, but the Suchan family in recent years began renting apartments on the second floor and opened the main floor as a second hand and antique store.
For the majority of the past 72 years, the Peterson/Suchan building has been an important part in the economy of downtown Bottineau and with the success of the Suchan’s current ventures it will no doubt continue to add improvements to the downtown business section.