The Mallon/Minkert building, at the northeast corner of Montgomery and Bill streets in Francesville, Indiana was built by local businessman John H. Mallon in 1899.

Mallon came to Francesville from Morgan County, Indiana in 1865, and in 1868 began to clerk with Samuel Reishling, who is credited as having begun the second-ever business in the town.

The store had an extremely close call in December, 1945, when a massive fire enveloped the block of buildings to its immediate east, on a bitterly cold night.

To visit Minkert's was to take a trip through time to a now-lost era in American retailing, with high ceilings, narrow aisles, hand-crafted wooden display cases, and husband-and-wife proprietors who knew their customers as friends.

It was during their tenure that Mrs. Gutwein took an interest in the building's history, and she supervised its restoration back to the genteel beauty of its turn-of-the century provenance.