Our History in Pictures

This first section is of the store in the early days.  The picture of a blank wall and my dad with the standup advertisement model dates back to the late 1949 or 1950 when he was just setting up.  He rented most of the store to someone who sold toys.  My father set up in the far east side of the store with just a card table and photofinishing which he and HIS father, Godfried Charles Maedel had already been doing for years for the local drugstores.  As my father got accounts with different camera and photo equipment manufacturers, his portion of the store grew while the toy area got smaller — until he had enough to fully stock the whole store.  The black and white photo below of the worker on the roof is his neon Maedel Cameras sign being installed by Mr. Willard Luthy of Luthy’s Neon Signs which was located across from the Farmer’s Market where the parking lot is now.  The color images are of the sign being removed in July 2004. 
  
If you’re a Monroe native you’ll enjoy seeing the old camera store go through changes starting back in the early 1950’s. But… more than this … you’ll get to see many of our customers who were photographed with my father’s ‘hidden camera’. A miniature Minox ‘spy camera’ was on a tripod off to one side of the main counter where my father did most of his business. He had a long cable release taped to the back of the showcase and would snap pictures as he waited on customers.

Much to their surprise, he would have an album out which he would encourage them to look through as they waited for their turn… and THERE THEY WERE! You’ll notice that these pictures were usually taken from a low angle off to the left of the customer. Years later that camera was replaced with a Polaroid camera and the customers were either asked if they would mind being added to our growing gallery or were simply having the camera demonstrated to them. Most times they were flattered. Then he started having them sign their own pictures Eventually the pictures went from the album to being displayed along the upper showcase soffit running the length of the store. If your picture was up there, you were SOMEBODY!. We started to even get requests to have pictures taken!