Former Prince Castle building demolished in La Salle

The building on U.S. 6 in La Salle that resembles a small castle was recently demolished.

The building at 620 Third St. originally was a part of the Prince Castle ice cream franchise founded by Earl Prince (1894-1960) in DeKalb in 1928. After just a couple of decades, more locations popped up throughout northern Illinois and Chicagoland. After he died in 1960, his son Earl took over the business and ran it for a couple of more decades until the 1980s. The younger Earl died Nov. 26, 2020, at 93.

One of the distinctive features of Prince Castle ice cream was the cones were dished up with a square stainless steel scoop. The Prince Castles also featured the Multimixer milkshake maker invented by their founder. A paper cup salesman named Ray Kroc became a Multimixer salesman. In 1954, Kroc made a sales call to the McDonald brothers restaurant in California — and what followed is fast food history.

After its life as an ice cream and food shop, the La Salle building went through a variety of uses including a hair salon, Tortoise & the Hair, and a nail salon, Hollywood Nails. The Ottawa location, which dates to the 1930s, still stands.

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