Rene De La Cruz
Victorville Daily Press
VICTORVILLE — Whether it was buying candy or cashing paychecks, one downtown liquor store still holds many cherished memories for longtime residents of the Victor Valley.
The historic Barrel House Market building celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. The Barrel House was built in 1914 on the corner of D and Fifth streets. Designated as a Historic Point of Interest by the city of Victorville, the cinderblock and cement building was used as a restaurant and jewelry store until 1933, when it became a market and liquor store.
Store owner Norm Danial, 69, said an old wooden sign that once hung outside of the building states that the store was erected in 1934, but the city and other experts said the building has been at the site since 1914.
“The sign hung over the door, which was in the shape of a huge barrel,” said Danial, who purchased the store 24 years ago. “In 1998, some crazy old guy backed into the building with his van and destroyed the barrel door after we closed.”
According to Gabino De La Cruz (who is the reporter’s father), Victorville civic leader Cory Moore and his wife, Violet, were the first owners of the Barrel House.
“It was an American-style restaurant, jewelry story and grocery store before it was the Barrel House,” said De La Cruz, who turned 90 in February. “... I remember my dad taking me there to buy groceries when I was 5 years old in 1929.”
A March 1950 edition of the San Bernardino County Sun reported that the $6.5 million Victor Housing Project at George Air Force Base had just broken ground with the 650-unit housing project named Cory Moore Village in honor of the community leader who died in an auto accident.
“The Moores were good people, very nice,” De La Cruz said. “They helped a lot of people in the community.”
Danial said since the store is located near the California Route 66 Museum, tourists from all over the country as well as Europe and Asia have stopped into the liquor store to ask questions and snap photos.
A chuckling Danial said he was told that a previous store owner would fill customers’ wine bottles from a barrel located at the back of the store.
Todd Gudal, who now lives in Wrightwood, said he lived nearby on Second Street growing up.
“When we were kids we would go to the Mojave River and find arrowheads and trade them for candy and toys,” he said. “Later on, when I worked at the cement plant, we would stand in line and cash our paychecks there.”
Gudal said he was one of many employees from Southwest Portland Cement Company who would visit the Barrel House to cash their checks, purchase snacks or pick up a six-pack of Lucky Lager beer.
Ruth Nolan, who graduated from Apple Valley High School in 1980, said her brother John used to work at the Barrel House while he was getting his teaching career started.
“I also used to shop there all the time and even had a line of credit with a longtime previous owner, Vi, an amazing woman,” said Nolan, a professor of writing and literature at College of the Desert.
Fern Rush said when she was a little girl, the Barrel House was always the last stop before her family headed out to Bell Mountain for a family adventure.
“I remember we used to get penny candy from there. We would save up one dollar’s worth of pennies and get 100 pieces of candy,” Rush said. “Summer time at D Street park was nothing if we couldn't get candy, pop or ice cream from the Barrel House.”
Debra Stone said she avoided the Barrel House because she “always saw it like a bar for drunks,” but Rani Walker said alcohol was not a part of her family’s Barrel House memory.
“My husband's father had a radiator shop near the Barrel House so he made many trips there as a kid,” said Walker, an administrative assistant at VVHS. “He said that the thing he loved the most was that they kept the Ding Dongs in the freezer.”
