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Gem Lake News Page 5 of 6 The Honeymoon House-A Gem Lake Legend It was just a modest little house, but for some it had rather magical and romantic qualities. Called "the Honeymoon House" it was home to at least six and maybe more newly married couples in the 1950's and '60's. The house was once located approximately where Mouldings, Doors and More is now, near the corner of County Road E and Highway 61. The topography of the area was different then. Highway 61 then ran in front of White Bear Floral, instead of west of the shopping center building that still exists to this day. It was much more of a residential area than it is now, with the homes of Henry Hoffman and his brother Bob Hoffman located nearby. The house itself was owned by Henry Hoffman and rented started about 1932 to the Wohletz family, the folks who came here to run the flower store. Despite very modest rent, the family no longer needed it after about 1952. "My parents (Henry and Elizabeth Wohletz) built a new house next to White Bear Floral after the realignment of Highway 61," said Lorraine Birkeland, who still runs the floral shop. (The picture at right shows Elizabeth Wohletz with her granddaughter Cindy in front of the Honeymoon House.) Henry Hoffman, later the first mayor of Gem Lake, had the house moved across County Road E and placed on Scheuneman Road, slightly north of the present day restaurant and a little north and east of Vera Auto. The move had become necessary due to the massive road construction project that changed the course of Highway 61. He then began renting out the little house to a succession of young couples. The house had two small bedrooms, a bath, a dining room and a tiny kitchen. The first honeymooners who rented the house were Millie and Bill LaBathe. Millie had grown up in Gem Lake. Her father, Charley Scheuneman, ran Scheuneman's Market on County Road E. (Now the site of the Gun Shop.) She and her husband moved in with her parents right after he got out of the Navy after World War II. Housing was in short supply at that time. They moved around a bit, including the downstairs portion of a duplex, before the small white house became available. "We were happy to get it. Houses were hard to find then." The couple spent one happy year there before the post-war housing boom allowed them to move into their own new house about a mile away. Millie remembers that the rent was only $35 a month then. The couples who followed included Wally and Betty Nelson, John and Linda Hurt, Dave and Joyce Hoffman, Rick and Shirley Arcand, Steve Hoffman and his wife, and probably others. (Dave and Steve Hoffman are the sons of Bob Hoffman, Henry's brother, Rick is the son of Dick Arcand, who was married to Henry Hoffman's daughter Shirley, and no, not everyone in Gem Lake is related.) Redevelopment in the Hoffman's Corner Area of Gem Lake caused the house to have to be m oved again. Shorty Urban, who married Henry Hoffman's daughter Vonnie had built the HCO gas station. The house, along with Freddie Roth's Tavern were both in the way. The Honeymoon House was moved about 1965, according to Rick Arcand. The tavern building was moved several years later, after Rick and Shirley bought it and made it their home. Both homes are now on Goose Lake Road, although they have been extensively remodeled. Rick and Shirley were the last couple to rent the little white house as honeymooners. They had one child when they moved there in 1968. At this point the little home had been placed in its current spot on Goose Lake Road and worked out just fine for the young couple, even after they had twins. "The kitchen was pretty small, but we probably would have lived there even longer. We moved after about a year because our home became available (the tavern building.) The Honeymoon House was inherited by Henry Hoffman's daughter Shirley Arcand when he died. She sold it to her son Patrick Arcand, Richard's brother, who lives there to this day. Only faint traces of the original building can be seen now, mostly on the east side. But, people who are familiar with the house like to think a little bit of the honeymoon happiness lives on there too....