SectionsSpringfield home to oldest DQ in service
Tim Perkins
Issue date: 11/7/06 Section: Features
Anybody can go to www.dairyqueen.com and find out that Dairy Queen's first store opened in Joliet, Ill. on June 22, 1940 by Sherb Noble. What many do not know is that Springfield is home to the oldest Dairy Queen still in service.
Located at 307 S. Jefferson Ave., this Dairy Queen has been in service since 1968, the same year www.dairyqueen.com says that DQ started serving the "Buster Bar."
Owner and Operator Julie Rohr said her dad started her in the Diary Queen business.
"My father opened a Dairy Queen in 1946 on Glenstone and Sunshine," she said. "It was the first store west of the Mississippi and the seventh store in the U.S.," Rohr said.
Back then, Rohr said it cost her father, Ralph "Bud" Bergstrom, about $9,000 for the store's building, the franchise and two ice cream freezers.
"(Bud Bergstrom) walks into a Dairy Queen and asks how he can get into the Dairy Queen business and the owner says 'Get in line, everybody wants to,'" Les Rohr, Julie Rohr's husband, said. "The owner had six freezers left to sell and Bud got two. Now it'd probably cost you a million dollars to go into the business."
Eighteen years later, Bergstrom relocated to the more centralized location on Jefferson Avenue and passed his Dairy Queen legacy down to his daughter, Julie.
"I've just been in the business my whole life," Julie Rohr said.
In the Dairy Queen, there are old pictures of Springfield and its first DQ, pictures of young Julie and her father in DQ uniform, and a portrait of John Ashcroft that reads, "To my first employer Bud Bergstrom. Thanks! And Best Wishes, John Ashcroft."
That is because the former governor, senator, and U.S. general attorney used to work here.
"My dad saw this kid pull up on a bike and ask for a job. He hired the kid and (Ashcroft) worked for my dad for all four years when he went to high school," Julie Rohr said.
The Dairy Queen that hired John Ashcroft and has been in service longer than any other, plans on staying open a while longer.
"We are an independent; we do what we want to do, we set our own prices and we try to hold the prices so that people keep coming," Julie Rohr said. " We put a credit card machine in two to three years ago and that is one of the best things we've done."
Dairy Queen's expansions have never left the Rohr's store behind.
"My father had nothing but ice cream cones and sundaes in pints and quarts in 1946," Julie Rohr said. "We opened up with a pretty much full line. They have so much stuff coming out next year it's not even funny."
With over sixty years in the Dairy Queen business and the oldest Dairy Queen still operating, Bud Bergstrom's legacy lives on in Springfield, Missouri unbeknownst to most.
Located at 307 S. Jefferson Ave., this Dairy Queen has been in service since 1968, the same year www.dairyqueen.com says that DQ started serving the "Buster Bar."
Owner and Operator Julie Rohr said her dad started her in the Diary Queen business.
"My father opened a Dairy Queen in 1946 on Glenstone and Sunshine," she said. "It was the first store west of the Mississippi and the seventh store in the U.S.," Rohr said.
Back then, Rohr said it cost her father, Ralph "Bud" Bergstrom, about $9,000 for the store's building, the franchise and two ice cream freezers.
"(Bud Bergstrom) walks into a Dairy Queen and asks how he can get into the Dairy Queen business and the owner says 'Get in line, everybody wants to,'" Les Rohr, Julie Rohr's husband, said. "The owner had six freezers left to sell and Bud got two. Now it'd probably cost you a million dollars to go into the business."
Eighteen years later, Bergstrom relocated to the more centralized location on Jefferson Avenue and passed his Dairy Queen legacy down to his daughter, Julie.
"I've just been in the business my whole life," Julie Rohr said.
In the Dairy Queen, there are old pictures of Springfield and its first DQ, pictures of young Julie and her father in DQ uniform, and a portrait of John Ashcroft that reads, "To my first employer Bud Bergstrom. Thanks! And Best Wishes, John Ashcroft."
That is because the former governor, senator, and U.S. general attorney used to work here.
"My dad saw this kid pull up on a bike and ask for a job. He hired the kid and (Ashcroft) worked for my dad for all four years when he went to high school," Julie Rohr said.
The Dairy Queen that hired John Ashcroft and has been in service longer than any other, plans on staying open a while longer.
"We are an independent; we do what we want to do, we set our own prices and we try to hold the prices so that people keep coming," Julie Rohr said. " We put a credit card machine in two to three years ago and that is one of the best things we've done."
Dairy Queen's expansions have never left the Rohr's store behind.
"My father had nothing but ice cream cones and sundaes in pints and quarts in 1946," Julie Rohr said. "We opened up with a pretty much full line. They have so much stuff coming out next year it's not even funny."
With over sixty years in the Dairy Queen business and the oldest Dairy Queen still operating, Bud Bergstrom's legacy lives on in Springfield, Missouri unbeknownst to most.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 2
Billy
posted 5/13/08 @ 4:56 PM CST
You are incorrect. This is not the oldest DQ in service. My families is now on its 56th year in operation.
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