Cohen’s Chicago Bazaar - 137 K Street

Bitter Creek used to run behind the North Side State Bank and under a wooden wagon bridge at this intersection. This is the notorious Bitter Creek referred to in cowboy ballads. Its bitter alkali water was disliked by both pioneers and frontiersmen. Wolf Cohen opened the Chicago Bazaar in 1910, and the boardwalk of the bridge was the sidewalk for his store. When the creek channel was changed, Cohen moved his original building to the back of the lot and built a new one. An advertisement for “groceries, meats, fruits, vegetables” is faintly visible on the north side of Cohen’s building.