Three multigenerational family businesses are operating side-by-side on County Road 50 in Lakeville, offering a sense of continuity that is rare in business today.
By Erin Adler • erin.adler@startribune.com
At Lakeville Dental, the dental charts go back to 1975 and patients remember visiting the Harrisons as long as they've had teeth.
Next door, at White Funeral Homes, funerals have been a family affair since 1895, with four siblings and their father on staff to ensure every client gets a personal meeting with one of them.
At McDonald Eye Care Associates, two optometrist daughters will soon be working alongside their dad and mom, helping kids choose their first pair of glasses or deal with sore eyes.
The three businesses, which sit in a row on County Road 50 in Lakeville, are all multigenerational, family-owned businesses. At each, more than one child has gone off to college and returned to the area to do exactly what they saw their parents do growing up. In an age when suburban strip malls are often full of chain businesses that come and go, these three neighbors stand out as an enclave that seems more like something from Main Street circa 1950.
The Whites
For the three White sons — Jim Jr., Mike and John — watching their dad, Jim Sr., help people was enough to make them all decide, by the age of 17, to study mortuary science and become funeral directors, said Jim White Jr.
Their sister, Meg White Heintze, joined them in planning funerals three years ago.