Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2025.
Patty Feltmann Bye was five years old. She lived in one of the eight apartments upstairs in the Ketterer Building on the corner of First and Lewis Street.
Patty’s sister, Sherry, age seven, and Patty were playing house in the hallway while Mrs. Anderson babysat them, according to the Shakopee Valley News, Sept. 12, 1957 article, “Fire Destroys Commander Apartments Building Saturday;” the Shakopee Argus-Tribune, Sept. 12, 1957 “Fire Hits Shakopee Business District;” the Shakopee Valley News, September 1957 “Shakopee Fire Destroys Feltmanns’ Household Furnishings;” and David R. Schleper Interview with Patty Feltmann Bye on March 5, 2025.
Patty and Sherry’s father, Clarence “Pidge” Feltmann, was working at the Effertz Buick garage, and her mother, Elizabeth Mary Betty Miller Feltmann was on the way to a ball game in Cold Spring with her brother, Lawrence Miller, who also lived at the apartment house next door with his uncle, Reinhold Miller.
A man came down the smokey hall with a flashlight yelling, “Fire! Fire! Get out!”
“I remember being worried that my dad may have been napping in the apartment during his lunch hour,” said Patty. Though Pidge was not there, the thought of her father, Pidge, being in the fire was in her mind when the man told them to get out.
The Ketterer building was on the northwest corner of First Avenue and Lewis Street, and was built in 1899.
It was damaged by fire on Saturday, Sept. 7, 1957 at 11:25 a.m.
According to Patty, “My sister was also worried and wanted to go back inside for her favorite bridal doll!”
The fire gutted the second floor of the building.
Firefighters from Shakopee and six other neighboring communities fought the fire for three hours.
Luckily, Pidge was out demonstrating a car when he heard the news, and he rushed back to the apartment to rescue the children, who were being taken care of by their neighbor, who was also in another Commander apartment building on the second floor of the Ketterer building.
Patty’s mother heard of the news on the radio in the car just as they arrived in Cold Spring for the baseball game, and she called to see the two girls were safe. Then she hurriedly returned home to Shakopee.
The fire damage was estimated at $80,000, including, it seems, the bridal doll.
The fire reportedly broke out in one of the upstairs apartments when a water heater exploded. The contents of the Shakopee Cafe, Coast to Coast Store, and McMurray’s Variety were ruined by smoke and water damage.
But all of the families were saved!