This week in Friend
About Friend
Friend began as Friendville, the 1870 homestead of Charles E. Friend, an Illinois man who ran a dry goods store and served as the first postmaster; when the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad built its station here, it gave the stop his name, and in 1873 sixteen square blocks were laid out around it, with trees planted on most of the lots. The town rode out a grasshopper plague in 1874 and grew into a grain and trade center, and in 1885 Canadian grain merchant Joshua Warren put up Warren's Opera House on Second Street, a brick block of shops below and an auditorium with a balcony above where touring companies, concerts and dances once filled the evenings. A carpenter, Richard Kiddle, built himself a Second Empire house with a mansard roof the next year, and both buildings are now on the National Register. For decades Friend also claimed the world's smallest police station, a former tool shed noted by Ripley's Believe It or Not!, until a neon Friend sign took its place in 2015. Today about 950 people live along Route 6, where the Friend Historical Society, formed in 2005 to bring the opera house back, fills its San Carlo Room with brass bands, holiday parties and the Community Christmas Celebration.
Along Maple St
- Brandt Carpet & Tile · 101 Maple St
- Kbk Creative Designs · 113 Maple St
- Rico's Mexican Restaurant · 123 Maple St
- The Tipsy Cow · 123 Maple St
- Salon West · 127 Maple St
- Home & Country Llc · 133 Maple St Ste B
- Blue Blossom Floral · 135 Maple St
- Citizens State Bank · 150 Maple St
- First National Bank Of Friend · 150 Maple St
- Johnson Pharmacy · 151 Maple St
- The Body Shop Wellness Center · 201 Maple St
- Orv's Grocery · 201 Maple St
- Friend City Hall · 235 Maple St
- Friend Police Department · 235 Maple St
- Skull Creek Tactical · 941 Maple St
- Burley Park · 1074 Maple St
- Friend Pool · 1074 Maple St
- Gilbert Public Library · 628 Second St
- Friend Congregational Church · 639 2nd St
- United States Postal Service · 119 S Chestnut St
- Friend, Nebraska, USA
- Complete Rural Medicine · 515 2nd St
- Chantel Collier, Msn, Aprn, Fnp-c · 515 2nd St
- Studio 508 · 512 2nd St
- Friend Opera House & San Carlo Room · 511 2nd St
- Preston Meints · 511 2nd Street Suite D
- Pour House · 511 2nd St
- Mary Mary Quite Contrary Gallery · 511 2nd St
- Friend Insurance Center Inc · 505 1st St