Tradition holds that Hales Corners’ first business began in 1834, when a log cabin near this spot served as a home, store, and inn, later known as the Western Hotel. In 1847-48, William Shields owned the land, and his brother Simon Shields built a large two-story frame hotel there. Joseph Dreyfuss bought the hotel in 1873 and renamed it the Dreyfuss Inn. It prospered by serving pioneer farmers heading west with families and livestock and local farmers taking produce to market, and as the number of farmers declined, Joseph Dreyfuss and his son Julius increasingly catered to professional people and the well-to-do, with fine meals that attracted Milwaukee society arriving by carriage or sleigh. Joseph Dreyfuss was the great grand uncle of Lee Sherman Dreyfus, Wisconsin’s 41st Governor. Another highly influential figure in the village’s development was Jacob Siegel, who in 1854 opened a general store and saloon on Janesville Road, now Forest Home Avenue, and brought in skilled tradesmen including a blacksmith, harness maker, cooper, wagon maker, shoemaker, and tinsmith to operate a row of businesses in buildings he constructed. Between 1865 and 1871 he helped found the Hales Corners Stock Fair, which was held monthly along Janesville Road and drew thousands of visitors; by 1958, when it moved to St. Martins, it included animals, produce, and many varieties of used goods. Rudimentary banking in the late 1800s was conducted from a wall safe in James Smith’s real estate and loan office, and in 1910 a chartered bank, the State Bank of Hales Corners, was established; it later became State Financial Bank and was acquired by Associated Bank in 2006. North of this spot stood the firehouse, where the Volunteer Fire Department, organized in 1927, remained at 10544 W. Forest Home Avenue for 75 years. Built of fieldstone and concrete block, the firehouse became notorious when it burned down in 1932, then was rebuilt and periodically remodeled until a new structure opened at 10000 W. Forest Home Avenue on February 17, 2002.