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Serving Longmont for 50 years Turner Realty celebrating its golden anniversaryBy Tony Kindelspire Longmont Times-CallPosted:   01/08/2012 07:22:02 PM MST
LONGMONT -- The business's owners call him the "little man." On the front window of the business is an old-fashioned drawing of a man holding two signs: one reads "for sale" and the other "Turner Realty."

That iconic symbol and the business turn 50 this year.

"It's a caricature of our father in 1962," Arnold Turner said. "We think it's significant that he's got his coat off and his sleeves rolled up and he's ready to go to work for you."

Brothers Arnold and Darrel Turner now run the business started by their parents, Evadean and Carl, in 1962.

Arnold Turner, 60, said that the signature advertising symbol was drawn by one of the first artists employed by Longmont Signs, which opened around the

Darrel Turner, left, and Arnold Turner, of Turner Realty, are celebrating the 50th anniversary of their family-owned company. ( LEWIS GEYER )same time as Turner Realty. He and his brother have been approached many times over the years to partner up with much larger realty companies -- common names known up and down the Front Range -- but that would have meant giving up Turner Realty's identity and its "little man," he said. "We weren't willing to do that," Arnold Turner said. "We've had him for 50 years and we think we'll keep him for another 50."

Building on a legacy

Though semi-retired, Darrel Turner still plays an active role in the business at 71, which should be no surprise. If 65 is retirement age, that's certainly not a number his parents paid any attention to.

Carl Turner worked well into his 80s until ill health slowed him down, and he died in 2003 at age 87. Evadean Turner was also well past 80 when she stopped working, and even after that she still kept in touch through her sons. She died in 2007 at age 89.

The couple moved to Estes Park when they first came to Colorado in 1948. After moving Longmont in 1955, they bought a now-defunct motel on north Main Street. Not long after, Evadean got her real estate license and a year later Carl did, too.

They launched Turner Realty in the

Carl and Evadean Turner, center, and sons Darrel, left, and Arnold are photographed in 1989 by the Times-Call story about the Turner's 50 years of marriage. (Times-Call File Photo) front room of their house in 1962 and within a few months had bought a former telephone company building at 425 Coffman St. The business is still there today. "Depending on who you ask, she was either the first or second woman that had her (real estate) license in Longmont," Arnold Turner said. "Mother always made the distinction that she was the first that did it full-time."

After some time working in theater in the Northeast U.S., Arnold Turner moved back to Colorado and joined his parents' firm in 1976. Darrel primarily made his living as a manufacturer's representative -- a traveling salesman of sorts -- and sold some real estate on the side before joining Turner Realty full-time in 1979.

The sign on the front window reads, as it always has, residential, commercial, farms and industrial.

In fact, Darrel Turner said, it's that versatility that has allowed Turner Realty to survive all these years. They've even added property management to the firm's portfolio.

Turner Realty's impact on Longmont has been significant. Carl Turner was instrumental in helping secure the land for the Federal Aviation Administration's air traffic control center, as well as the library, police station and several other community landmarks. But both parents took their biggest satisfaction in residential real estate, especially helping put people in their first home, the brothers said.

And their parents passed on an appreciation for preserving history where it

Turner Realty's staff, from left: Realtor Robin Weir, Realtor Maria West, and director of property management Arissa Pedroza, are photographed on Wednesday. ( LEWIS GEYER )could be preserved, Arnold Turner said. The firm once relocated an old house from the west side of Terry Street, where a parking lot was going to be built, and moved it south, down a steep hill, to the 200 block of Terry, where it still stands today. Arnold recalls that the Longmont City Council gave the company an award on a Tuesday night for preserving the house, then the following day the city served it with a fine for damaging the street. And Darrel Turner completely renovated what had been a Texaco gas station at 541 Main St. into a modern office building that today houses a dentist's office

The Turners were also instrumental in helping start Boulder County's open space program, Arnold Turner said.

"Our heritage for us is important," he said. "Saving that old house, saving that nice old building, saving that open space."

The sons carry on the memory

"Dad was involved in politics," Darrel Turner said, explaining that while his dad never ran for office himself, he was active in local politics behind the scenes.

Arnold Turner said that there was a time when politics -- at least as far as the city's business went -- weren't as partisan as they are today.

"Although they were (sometimes) on different sides politically, they were all for the community," Arnold said. "They were for the community more than they were for party."

"The middle is not a bad place to be" was a favorite saying of his father, he said.

Another saying his dad had, when it came to business, was, "'You've always got to leave a little bit on the table for the next guy,'" Arnold said. "And I think that is a rare thing."

Carl and Evadean Turner were married for 64 years when Carl passed away. Their sons continue to work hard to maintain the legacy left behind, and it's a legacy that's appreciated outside the firm, as well.

The Longmont Association of Realtors renamed its Citizen of the Year Award the Carl Turner Citizen of the Year Award in 2003, the year Carl Turner died.

"We were proud as punch," Arnold Turner said. "We were absolutely as proud as we could be. Those trophies, given by their peers, meant as much to them as anything except their religion."

A recent planning department buzzword is “Neighborhood Commercial”, which means these days: a 7-11, nail salon and a donut store within walking distance of your rabbit warren.  When I was a kid, and I am going to say this a lot in the blog - which we will  reduce to “WIWAK”, it had an entirely different connotation. The early 1950’s was the demise  of true neighborhood  commercial and the rise of what could be called the "cookie cutter" approach to neighborhood commercial where every town in the country looks exactly the same.

Included with this blog are pictures of what were the genuine "mom and pop" neighborhood grocery stores that existed throughout Longmont.  Many of them were still operating "WIWAK" in the late 50’s.  Most had been reduced from genuine full service stores (you could charge your groceries by the month!), to odd specialty shops and kid’s candy stores.  To those of you who are my age, you may remember these stores with the weirdest candy – jawbreakers, cinnamon flavored toothpicks, bubble gum of all flavors including Bazooka gum with cartoons and even small various shaped bottles of paraffin wax.  The bottles contained fruit flavored sugar water which you drank, and then you got to enjoy chewing on the wax bottle.  Recent legislation has chastised cigarette companies for making products appeal to young kids with cartoons but they sold us candy cigarettes in Lucky Strike and Camel boxes so we could "be just like Dad".

The people and their stores, where they worked in the front and lived in the back, were rapidly aging and truly were on their way out. Safeway which was the original big corporate store in town "back in the good old days”, was located on the NE corner of Longs Peak and Main Street, which is now the Mister Money. It brought corporate competition when prior to that date, home town, locally owned grocery stores ruled the roost.  As Safeway killed off the mom and pop grocery stores and Longmont grew, Safeway expanded until it opened a fabulous new store on 15th and Main Street in 1959.  Though my father worked for Ideal Markets, a locally owned chain of stores owned by Clair Smith, my mother could not resist going to this new slick and shiny corporate store. They were giving away porcelain piggy banks, and I know it was 1959 because my piggy bank says so on its bottom.  Safeway’s motto at the time was a small cartoon character on ads pushing a grocery cart with a narrow tie, slicked back hair with a caption that read “I like saving money.  Money is my hobby.  My wife is out saving money shopping at Safeway”. Local grocers did their best to compete with corporate giants by making bigger stores and changing the names, such as Food Giant, which was located on 9th and Coffman, which is now home to Ares Thrift Store, or the new Corner Pantry on Francis Street, which was one the last and biggest of Clair Smith’s Ideal markets.  But eventually, they all passed away as did their supplier, Associate Grocers.

Before my mother and father started Turner Realty in 1962, dad worked for Mr. Smith as the manager of the meat department at the S. Main Ideal grocery store, which is now El Vaquero Western Wear.  "WIWAK", the thriving market was across the street from Longmont’s lively livestock auction that all the farmers from all around attended each Saturday.  While farms bought and sold cattle, pigs and sheep, their wives and children shopped at Ideal Market.

 I don’t miss the old days (much) but it’s helpful to look back and remember how good we have it now.  I don’t believe these stores had a produce department and it seems the fruits and vegetables were locally grown, rarely in stores and completely seasonal.  That is a far cry from the abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables available now in every grocery store.  Anytime you wanted to buy fruits and vegetables you could do so in the 50’s, but it was either canned, dried or frozen.  I don’t remember big frozen food sections in the stores either, so canned was mostly what you got.  Take a look in your local grocery store next time and see how small the canned fruit and vegetable department has become.

Bakeries were also one per community, not one per store, and if you wanted motor oil or antifreeze, you went to a garage or an auto parts store.  There was no such thing as self-check out, which I refuse to use and so should you because it took away some persons job.  Traditionally, a young person’s job was to start out as a bagger, then get promoted to a checker and maybe to a manager.  Some even worked their entire lives in the grocery store where they started working as teenagers.