The 124-year-old building on Jackson Highway where Mary McCrank’s used to be in south Chehalis now has two new businesses calling it home — Medical Massage & Acupuncture and Summit Chiropractic Center.
Medical Massage & Acupuncture is owned by acupuncturist Kim Wilson. Her husband, chiropractor Aaron Wilson, runs Summit Chiropractic Center alongside Kim’s clinic.
In 2019, the couple began planning to build an expansion on property they purchased next to their old location, but with inflation driving up construction costs, they decided to find a property they could simply remodel into what they needed.
In July, the couple officially opened their businesses at the old Mary McCrank’s restaurant location at 2923 Jackson Highway at the intersection with Logan Hill Road in Chehalis.
Originally constructed in 1900, Kim said the building was first a restaurant known as the Dutch Mill Tavern.
“It’s really fun to practice in a building this old,” Kim said. “It’s just something really founded about the feel of the building. So for the kind of work we do, it’s a good fit. It’s a palpable difference from our old facility.”
Prior to being in the Mary McCrank’s building, Kim and Aaron ran their practices on Kresky Avenue. While the decade they spent there was good, the building had more of a medical examination feel to it instead of a homey feel, they said.
“It was the medical dropped ceilings and commercial carpet and the fluorescent lighting. But here, like if you look at the ceiling, this is that beautiful fanning dry wall that only two dry-wallers in the state can do,” Kim added.
The massage therapy, acupuncture and chiropractic work that goes on now is a far cry from the building’s origins.
Mary McCrank was born in 1900 in Vancouver, British Columbia. She moved to Lewis County as a teenager and worked for the Automobile Club of Washington.
When the Great Depression forced the club to close in 1935, McCrank found herself out of a job. The Depression had hit the Dutch Mill Tavern hard, too, and McCrank bought it after the owner offered her a price she couldn’t refuse.
She changed the name to the Shamrock Inn to honor her Irish heritage, but the good home-cooked style meals McCrank served ended up making everyone just call the restaurant by her own name — an irony considering when she first bought the restaurant she didn’t know how to cook.
Eventually, she officially changed its name to Mary McCrank’s. McCrank died in 1984. Her ashes were spread beneath the property’s magnolia tree.
“My regulars, one lady, she’s 86 years old and she said, 'Oh Kim, I had my graduation party at Mary McCrank’s,’” Kim said. “We get all kinds of stories about the food and different dishes that people loved.“
Following her death, the restaurant closed until it was bought in 1998 by Gerhad and Jeri Schopp who reopened it. In 2012, they changed its name to Schopp’s Steakhouse, but it closed a year later.
The building was then purchased by John and Shelly McKerricher in 2015. They turned the property into a wedding and event venue. Now, it’s the Wilsons who own the property, and the history of the building itself also now inspires Kim.
“Since Mary McCrank was so successful here as a female business owner at a time when not many women owned businesses at all, that kind of legacy of success in business for women does inspire me,” she added.
Originally, Kim and Aaron had purchased the property next to their old location on Kresky Avenue with plans to expand. After the pandemic, though, construction costs continued to increase.
“What we thought was going to be a $1 million project was now a $2.5 million dollar project, so we decided to buy existing and remodel instead,” Kim said. “It’s been such a fun change with the creek and the gazebo out there. It has kind of the more pastoral elements as you’re driving out here, and the super grounded Qi of this building.”
Kim is one of five acupuncturists on staff, the oldest of whom is Dr. Hui Chong Chang, a former U.S. Army lieutenant colonel who served as an anesthesiologist before retiring from the Army and becoming an acupuncture therapist.
“He’s been doing acupuncture for decades now since his military retirement. He’s 78 years old and speaks Chinese and English, and sees a lot of his fellow veterans,” Kim said. “He goes by Jonathan.”
Another of her colleagues, Morgan Tougas, specializes in electro-acupuncture for nerve pain.
Additionally, there are 12 licensed massage therapists on staff, including one of their newest hires, Linda VanPuymbrouck, who specializes in therapeutic massages for athletes or those with athletic injuries.
“She spent years on the sports massage team, so she really brings that skill set to the practice,” Kim said.
For those interested in chiropractic care, Aaron is joined by one other licensed chiropractor, Shawn Brown.
Medical Massage & Acupuncture is open Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., while Summit Chiropractic Center is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and 2 to 6 p.m.
For more information, including about other services offered and how to make an appointment at either business, visit https://medicalmassageinc.net/ and https://www.summitchirocenter.com/ or follow the businesses on Facebook.
