'Throw concerts and feed people soup': Creating community at Walkerville Grocery

It is with pride that the owners of the future Walkerville Grocery invited members of the community to stand, walk and dance on their newly completed hardwood floors. Soup was dished, cake was plated and music rang through the room as local bands took the corner stage in the historic Caplice and McCune Mercantile building.

After nearly half a century of neglect, Clark Grant and Daniel Hogan bought the building in 2017 with hopes of bringing a community market to Walkerville. They, along with Rodney Norman, Jay Bressette and many others, have been working to stabilize and renovate the building since.

“We had no concept of how much work it would be to resurrect the building,” Hogan said.

The first five years were spent primarily on structural necessities, including fixing the roof – a large portion of which had collapsed. While they recognize there’s still a long way to go, Thursday’s event was an opportunity to show off some of the progress.

With the windows installed, the floors laid and the framing started, the next steps for the grocery store are the plumbing and electrical work. A fundraiser took place in November to help raise money for those costs. Additionally, they continue to apply for grants and funding from the city, the state and federally.

“When we bought the building, we thought we'd be open within 10 years, and we haven't hit 10 years yet,” Hogan said.

Grant and Hogan remain hopeful they’ll open the doors to the grocery store in a year and a half to two years. But they aren’t letting that timeline stop them from relishing in the space now.

Bands playing included Siri Sæteren, a folk and Americana singer out of Belgrade, and Junior, a self-described sad femme folk pop band also from Montana.

Sæteren received an extra round of applause when she told the audience it was her first time performing a solo set and Junior received a round of laughs when they joked the song they’d just finished playing was about selling groceries.

“We always kind of talk about this era that we're in right now is like the golden age where we don't have to worry about running a business, but we have this big, beautiful building where we can throw concerts and feed people soup,” Hogan said.

While the primary goal is bringing Walkerville a place to buy bread and eggs, the team always saw this as an opportunity to bring Walkerville a public space.

The plans include a commercial kitchen, a coffee bar, seating and an employee lounge.

“We want to make this a place where people feel comfortable just walking in the door,” Hogan said.