By Chuck Seaver, South Lake Tablet
The Yummi’s Frozen Yogurt & Café building located at 650 Eighth Street in historic downtown Clermont has a past as plentiful as the dessert flavors that now adorn the little corner store located at Montrose and Eighth Streets.
The timetable began in 1921, when the northwest corner of the dirt road intersection was an empty section of a town that was recovering from a tough beginning in the late 1800s. John D. Jones, a native of Safe Harbor, Florida, had a vision of creating a multi-use building with separate storefronts and dividing walls, like today’s version of a strip mall.
After purchasing the lot, Jones built a new brick building that was 92 x 86 feet and soon became the Reliance Garage. With extra rooms available for other business use, one such space was rented by a Mount Dora hardware store owner. This was the beginning of the Clermont Hardware store – a business that would remain in place for 60 years. The Hannum-Williams Drug Company opened in one of the other spaces, while Perry Short opened a jewelry store in the last remaining vacancy.
The Reliance Garage served the area as a one-pump gas station with a triangle-shaped canopy that provided shade and shelter to the angled entryway that remains today. The station, believed to be a subsidiary of The Texas Fuel Company, now known as Texaco Inc., was at the epicenter of downtown Clermont traffic. Most of the retail business and all of the town’s banking business, at the time, was located within a three-block radius of the little garage.
Much of the original exterior design for the structure remains in place today, including the curious “Texas Star” that adorns the entryway floor at the front door to the business. Although no known pictures or documentation confirm the age of the star, aging and lifelong natives of Clermont recall seeing the star in place when they were children in the 1940s. Twenty years backwards from that era to the Reliance Garage – Texas Fuel Company days seems a reasonable assumption that the mystery star was likely installed by the owners of the gas station garage.
In 1924, the Reliance Garage was sold to a doctor in Mount Dora, who turned the building into a family drug store, better known as Clermont Rexall Drug Store. In 1929, George E. Scott purchased the business and transformed the drug store’s name into Scott’s Pharmacy. Scott remained in the building with success, and by 1938, added a modernistic fountain and luncheonette counter to the drug store. The new equipment was polished black and silver and was considered state-of-the-art for its time. The lunch counter drew large crowds of downtown businessmen and shoppers, who enjoyed a full compliment of soft drinks, sandwich plates, and ice cream for dessert. The equipment remained in place until its removal in the 1960’s by pharmacy owners Russell Grant and Richard “Dick” Harris, co-owners of Grant-Harris Drug Store.
In the mid-1960s, downtown’s character began to change. House-to-house mail delivery started in the 1950s, decreasing foot traffic to the post office. The Citizens Bank had moved from central downtown to Montrose Street and Lake Avenue, taking with it foot traffic from townspeople who had grown accustomed to driving rather than walking for their daily errand needs.
This left the Grant-Harris Drug Store the only large, regularly visited retail store in the formerly compact business district. In 1965, a new shopping center, South Lake Plaza, was being built on State Road 50 near Bloxam Avenue. Eckerd Drug Store, which had purchased Grant-Harris in 1968, would move to the new shopping center in 1969, leaving yet another blow to the downtown business district.
Patti Lu Casuals, a women’s clothing store, occupied the former drugstore location for several years in the 1960s. The store, owned by Pat Grant and Lucy Johnson, was founded in 1963 as a family-owned business that catered to the local ladies’ fashion needs of all ages. The business eventually relocated to the South Lake Plaza shopping center in 1969, leaving the premises vacant for some time.
Although several businesses have come and gone in the historical location, the surrounding area still maintains a small-town charm with evidence of the past all around if one takes the time to notice. Efforts to revitalize the area have paid off in a big way for both the community and the business owners in the downtown district. Several new restaurants have opened in the immediate area of West Montrose Street and Eighth Street, while Yummi’s Frozen Yogurt and Café remains a favorite spot for dessert.
Take a stroll and enjoy not only the pedestrian-friendly downtown Clermont but the wonderful businesses that once again bring life to an area rich with deep historical roots.
