USA > New Hampshire > Sullivan County > Newport > Newport, New Hampshire, 1761-1961 : bicentennial celebration, Aug. 14-20, 1961 > Part 12
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continued as Service manager for Mr. Fairbanks, who soon bought out Mr. Morrill's interest. In 1947, Mr. Max- ham left and established his own re- pair shop on North Main Street to which he added welding and power lawn mower service.
* * OSGOOD'S ESSO SERVICE STA- TION, 50 Sunapee Street - In 1950, Earl Chase built, on the site of the former home of Fred T. Pollard, the service station now leased to the Humble Oil Company, Esso dealers. Since 1957, the station has been man- aged by Guy W. Osgood, who came to Newport from Sutton, Vermont.
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PAK TRANSPORT, INC. - with headquarters on Meadow Road, came into existence Jan. 12, 1948. Original owners were Robert A. and Allen W. Peirce, William H. Aiken, Jr., and Martin L. Kennelley, Jr. This pertol- eum transportation business began in Waltham, Mass. and moved to Unity Road, Newport, Oct. 1., 1949. The change to the present location was made Sept., 1950.
Mr. Kennelley's interest was bought out several years ago. In 1953 the concern suffered a serious fire loss when the building housing their equip- ment burned and they lost over 50% of their tractors and trailers. In 1958 PAK bought Harry Jubb's lumber haul- ing rights and they now haul lumber and general freight with a fleet of five tractors, thirteen trailers and mis- cellaneous equipment.
PARISEAU'S SERVICE STATION, 80 Sunapee Street - In 1944, Fred Pariseau and Roy McGowan formed a partnership and opened the Amoco Service Station on Sunapee Street. After only a few months, they re- located at the Mobil Station at 86 Sunapee Street. In 1945, Mr. McGowan sold his half of the partnership to Gerald Bunker, who remained a part- ner of Fred Pariseau until 1947. Mr. Pariseau then bought out Mr. Bunker, and continued in business at the same spot for ten years.
In 1957, he bought the Gulf Station where he is presently located. Since 1944, he says, he has had eight em- ployees, one furnace explosion, one auto fire, one forged check, one theft and the station has been entered seven times during the night with two con- victions
PATTEN'S AUTO BODY SHOP, 40 Court St. - Our building was built in the early 30's either 1930 or 31. It was built by a gentleman named Mr. Woodcock, who built Monuments. He acquired an old barn, which he dis- mantled, and used the materials to build this building at its present loca- tion, 40 Court St.
Ray Bartlett bought and remodeled the building in 1935. It was used as a garage for storing trucks for the State of New Hampshire Highway Depart- ment. Mr. Bartlett, who has been living on Court Street since 1935, was em- ployed by the Highway Department until he retired in 1948. He was on 24 hour call for the Highway Dept. during these years.
In 1950 Mr. Bartlett sold the build-
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ing to L. E. Weed & Son. They used it for a garage until they built their new garage on South Main Street in 1954. From 1954 until 1958 the building was used for storing Equipment owned by Weed & Son.
In the fall of 1958 it was sold to L. A. Whipple. Two weeks later Whip- ple sold it to Walter J. Patten and his brother John F. Patten.
Since 1958 the building has been Patten's Auto Body Shop. Walt Pat- ten started body work in 1952 at Chase & Avery Body Shop. He worked there until the fall of '58, at which time he started his own business.
John Patten was operating the At- lantic Station on North Main St. when the partnership was formed. In Feb- ruary, 1959, their wrecker was com- pleted. This added another service to both the Atlantic Service Station and to the body shop.
In April they acquired dealer plates and started selling used cars. Thus, what started out as a small operation with a service station and body shop was growing into quite an enterprise. In September, 1959, it was decided, that John close the Atlantic Station and devote all his time in the body shop.
In the spring of 1960, John decided to sell his share of the business to Walt. In June Walt made his son Michael a full partner in the business. It is now a father and son operation.
Since Walt and Mike had both worked on the Ski Patrol at Mt. Sun- apee, and were both qualified first-aid attendants, they bought a fully equipp- ed ambulance and operated from Mt. Sunapee during the season 1960-1961. It was decided that this would be a year round service from their place of business.
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PICKETT'S MARKET, 14 Oak St. -
which has operated under the present trade name for 37 years, is located on the ground floor of a two-tenement block which was constructed in 1906 by George Dandrow.
Mr. Dandrow, former Newport tax collector, operated a market in back of the Brampton Woolen Co. and later on his farm, the former Leander- Dodge property on Oak Street, prior to constructing the block on the Dan- drow family land at the corner of Oak and Main Streets. His new mar- ket was known as the North Central Market.
He and his wife were proprietors until 1917 when they were joined by their son-in-law, George Peters, and the market became Dandrow and Pet- ers. In 1923, it was purchased by the late John E. Pickett who operated it with his wife until his death in 1956 .- The block and land, inherited by rel- atives after Mr. Dandrow's death, eventually became the property of Mrs. L. A. Whipple, his granddaughter. The Whipples later sold it to John Fairbanks who is the present owner.
The market is unique in that it has boasted a woman butcher and meat cutter since its opening, first Mrs. Dandrow, and from 1923, Mrs. Pickett who took over the market when her husband died. Last spring, she sold to her son-in-laww, Edward J. Karr, and at 74 is still assisting as clerk and meat cutter.
Many of the old country store tra- ditions have been preserved through the years; bulk goods, fresh-cut meats, service rather than self-service, and free delivery. Pickett's store-on-wheels. originally a walk-in body which was completely stocked and later a pro- visioned GMC truck body, has served customers door-to-door in the Goshen- Lempster and Lake Sunapee areas since the early 1930's.
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QUALITY CLEANERS, 65 Sunapee Street - The dry cleaning business known as Quality Cleaners was estab- lished by Robert Ross in 1948. In De- cember, 1954, it was purchased by Clarence E. Robinson, Sr., the pres- ent owner and operator.
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ROLLINS RURAL GAS COMPANY AND NEWPORT SERVICE LAUN- DROMAT, 27 Central Street - was started about ten years ago by Miriam Snyder and was the first laundromat in Newport. It started with two ma- chines and now has ten washers, two extracters, and three dryers. In May, 1957, this operation was sold to Elinor Rollins and about the same time Leon Rollins purchased from Hamilton Krans the Rural Gas distributorship which is operating under the name of Rollins Rural Gas Co. at the same location.
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ROWELL BROTHERS, INC., "KORN ALLEY", Newport, N. H. - In pre- senting the high-lights of the firm I am attempting to cover a span of eighty four years in business in one location and owned in the same fam- ily.
From 1877 to the latter part of 1926 our firm was under the ownership and direction of Franklin Pierce Row- ell, and Korn Alley in those days was known as "Corn Alley". Early in 1900 he changed the "C" to a "K" because he sold grain and "Corn."
Mr. Rowell came to Newport in 1874 and for a short time was in the grain business with a Mr. Wright and a Mr. Dutton. It was only a short time when he sold his interests in this grain firm and bought from W. H. Dutton the property where the business has been located since. This build- ing at that time was just one building (no express addition). There are now six large modern warehouses in addi- tion to office and sales rooms and uses some 25,000 sq. ft. in storage space.
In 1898, a very damaging fire at the Korn Alley building, destroyed com- pletely the flat-roofed part of the sales rooms. (this at that time was a barn where were kept three horses and in season two to six pigs). One of the horses was lost. The main part of this building was saved. This building was then used for grains and a limited sup- ply of groceries, but the grocery part of the business was not continued, so grain was handled entirely with a limited amount of lumber. Remember no automobiles at this time. Corn, oats and wheat came in bulk carloads via Boston & Maine Railroad. The grain was unloaded into barrels: drew it to the store where it was elevated by water power to the storage on second floor. As soon as possible conversion to
electricity. All grain was bagged it was sold.
Grain business was good in those days, but the modern building materi- als were coming onto the market, so with much consideration of these changing times they began stocking the new materials in limited quantities. In these times it was hard to make people believe that these modern as- phalt materials would really ever re- place the wooden shingles.
In 1922 they suffered another loss by fire, losing what were their best ware- houses, located west of the Freight Depot. Out of this catastrophe sprang the two large sheet-iron buildings on the same location, and these have served well all these years. The Rink, as called, located west of the Railroad and south of Pearl street, was used for sometime as a town skating rink before it was bought. A bandstand was suspended from the center of the building. Apparently this was one of the social centers in the early 1890's and 1900's.
In 1926 Franklin P. Rowell passed away and it incorporated under the name of Rowell Brothers. All of the boys excepting Stephen worked in the business. After the passing of Mr. Rowell the building material and builders' supply end of the business expanded. This department grew so fast that in 1931 it purchased from Leland W. Gile his grain business in Depot Square and continued grain business from that location, but later sold this business and building to the Wirthmore Feed Co. who continued in this location for many years.
In 1958 the southern end of what is known as Depot Square including the passenger station was purchased. This area is used as public free parking and gives much relief to Main Street parking.
A. SHEPARD AND SON, North Main Street - distributors of Cott Beverages, operates from headquarters at the Moose Club. The original distributor in this area was Bert Surrell who lived and ran the business in Guild. Mr. Shepard bought the business in August, 1952, and when his son Mark returned from Korea he joined his father and is the chief salesman.
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SHOE TREE, 23 Main Street -- This store began business in 1935, when Jalmar Palin operated a shoe repair shop in Korn Alley. He sold out to Russell Gardner, originally of New- port, Vt., in 1946. Mr. Gardner ran a shoe repair business at this same loca- tion until 1951, when he expanded by purchasing a shoe repair shop and shoe store from Stergios Evangelou at 10 Main Street. This store was sold to Michael J. Andosca on Feb. 1, 1955, and he continued the business under the same name of "Gardner's Shoe Store" until 1957, when he changed to the present name, "The Shoe Tree". The following year, Mr. Andosca sold the repair shop to Isaac Silander who moved to Sunapee Street, and at the same time, "The Shoe Tree" moved to its present modern location.
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THE SHOP OF BOOKS & PRINTS, 5 Sunapee Street - This is a store
as
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specializing in books for high school libraries. It was started by Leonora Waite in June, 1955, at her home at 31 Elm Street and in June, 1959, she moved to her present Sunapee Street location. This store has many used books. Requests for catalogs have been received from Hawaii, Texas and the Carolinas among other places.
STETSON BLACKSMITH SHOP, Oak Street, - Gardner Stetson, owner. Mr. Stetson started in the blacksmith business in Newport by renting an existing blacksmith shop on Oak Street from Herman Moody in 1946. He purchased the business in 1958. Mr. Moody had built the building in 1910 after moving here from Lempster. In recent years there has been a tre- mendous drop in the number of work horses in the area, but during the same period there has been a con- siderable increase in the number of riding and driving horses. Most of the horses are ridden or trucked to his shop and they come from Keene, Lebanon, Claremont and as far east as Wilmot Flat.
The bulk of Mr. Stetson's business today is with the logging industry repairing dollies, truck bodies, scoops, and in the repair of mill parts. The low point in horse-shoeing came about five years ago. Naturally, there has been a proportionate drop in the use of wagons and carriages and, conse- quently, there is at present no work in the repair of wagon wheels, spokes, setting axles, tires and the like. The blacksmith business has thus been revamped to replace the old-time work by adapting to the new.
STONE VAULT COMPANY, Clare- mont Road - This company was orig- inally formed in Laconia, New Hamp- shire, to manufacture and distribute concrete burial vaults. A branch dis- tribution warehouse was established about 1940 in Claremont under the name of Claremont Vault Co., the manufacturing being done in Laconia. After World War II in 1945, Richard C. Stone (better known as "Stony") of Newport purchased the business operating it for six months as it was originally set up. He then ran a sur- vey of the Claremont, Newport and Windsor area and picked Newport to set up a shop for manufacturing. The first location was on Laurel Street In 1949 larger quarters were needed and with the help of friends and local business men, the present plant was constructed. This company now man- ufactures the nationally known Nor- . walk Burial Vault. New modern molds are on order and the company expects to have them in operation before the end of the summer. Also, they are the distributors of the nationally advertised Wilbert Burial Vault. This company strives to give the Funeral Directors a complete Burial Vault Service. Jack Marcotte is presently the plant man- ager in charge of production and dis- tribution.
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SUGAR RIVER DAIRY BAR, Clare- mont Road I - Gates Murchie and Harry Lucas purchased the Dairy Bar building after it was built by Bill Salley in 1953. The Murchies had been
in the hotel business most of their lives owning and operating such hotels as the Follansbee Inn in Sutton, and the Indian Cave Lodge and Soo Nipi Park Lodge in Sunapee. They pur- chased the property to operate a drive- in type dairy bar and restaurant which it is today. During the past eight years of operation the property has been improved with the purchase of new equipment and in 1958 a gift shop was added.
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SUGAR RIVER FABRICS, INC., North Newport - Sugar River Fabrics, Inc., established in 1946 in North New- port was a unique enterprise-a small mill in which fine woolen cloth was woven on hand looms, from weaving yarns made with the power of the Sugar River. Its final product has been sold chiefly through its own shop next door to the mill. Leslie E. Badming- ton, one of the original founders, served as designer of the beautiful fab- rics and president of the firm until his death in 1949. He was succeeded by his son, Sherwood C. Badmington, who remained at Sugar River until 1960, when he joined Burlington Industries in Rossville, Georgia.
Conrad Starr and Matti Kivisto began operating the hand looms at the beginning, Mr. Kivisto continuing until his death in 1960 and Mr. Starr until the mill ceased weaving in 1961. In 1957, Mrs. Anastasia Ambargis, who was later joined by Mrs. Viola Perry, established a tailoring department in connection with the Sugar River tweed shop operated by Barbara Badming- ton Holden. For the rest of its em- ployees, Sugar River has drawn upon several members of the Newport com- munity who were employed on a part- time basis.
It was something of a surprise to everyone concerned to learn, after the first few years of the firm's opera- tion, that the small mill numbered among its customers visitors from forty of the then forty-eight states. To a few thousand men and women from all over the country who wear Sugar River suits and sport jackets, the name of Newport still means Sugar River, and fine tweeds.
THE SUNSHINE MARKET, Sun- apee Street - owned and operated by Edward Lower, started originally as a pop-corn and hot-dog stand at its present location just beyond the Gor- don Mill. Mr. Lower enlarged the hot-dog stand after the hurricane of 1938, with blown-down logs from the Spooner farm. The market was closed during World War II because of diffi- culty in procuring stock. After the war, Benny Lower, Edward's brother, started the business again. It was later sold back to Edward who owned it jointly with his son-in-law Charles Cunningham for a brief period.
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TEXACO GASOLINE STATION, Main and Maple Streets - The Tex- aco Gasoline station owned by O. H. Lewis, Inc. and operated since 1953 by Curtis Wood was built about 1938 on the site of the home of Guy Dodge, which was moved back to make room for the new building. O. H. Lewis, Inc.
have always been the owners of the station; previous operators were Joe Fleming, John Roe, and Floyd Reason- er.
VIC'S MARKET, 2 Elm Street - This market is located in one of New- port's first brick buildings. It has served the community for the past 25 years. The business was established in 1936 by Victor Jasinski, formerly of Claremont. He operated the 'store until his death on November 3, 1959. It is now owned and managed by his widow, Mrs. Ann Jasinski, with the assistance of her sons, Jerry and Tim- othy. Vic's Market carries a full line of groceries, dairy products, cold cuts, cold drinks and beverages, candy and tobacco, frozen foods and produce.
WALKER-KOSKI SALES AND SER- VICE, 9 South Main Street - The business of repair and sales of radio and television units started April 1, 1955 at 41 South Main Street. The owners are Aaro O. Koski and Charles Walker, Jr. They sell and repair radios, televisions sets, phonographs and mis- cellaneous equipment.
THE WESTERN AUTO ASSOCIATE STORE, 48 Main St., - now located in the Wheeler Block, was once housed in the old Geoffrion Block, later torn down at about the spot where Smet's Gulf Station is. The first owner of the Newport store was Ted Coggeshall. A later owner was Aldrich Lucas and the present owner is John H. Cum- mings who bought the business Sept. 19, 1960. At one time the Western Auto Store was in the Edes Block.
THE WHITNEY STUDIO AND CAMERA SHOP, 18 North Main Street, -- was established about 1895 by Law- rence G. Ross who had his studio in the Richards Block. Mr. Ross mar- ried Lillian Runals whose father had a farm in Sunapee where the Ben Mere Hotel now stands. Mr. Ross built the Carroll Johnson house in 1910, which he sold to Mr. Johnson in 1918, when he sold his photography business to Karl Waldron. Lawrence Whitney purchased the business in December, 1949, and operated at the Richards Block location until October 14, 1958, when he moved to the Library House.
WILCOX RIDING STABLE, Goshen Road - operated by Jeanne Wilcox, is located on a farm adjacent to the Little Red School House which was purchased from August Akkola in 1956. Mrs. Wilcox prepared a riding ring and trails on the property and owns eight school horses. She has been rid- ing since childhood and in 1948, won the Grand Championship in Equita- tion for the State of Maine which was in competition throughout the whole summer. At the time she owned two horses which won championships the same season. Mrs. Wilcox, previous to establishing the stable in Newport, taught riding in Augusta, Maine. She now offers instruction to individuals and groups and her horses may be hired for just plain riding.
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WOODLAWN MANOR, Pine Street - This property, well known as the Dorr Estate, was originally built for a summer home for Lucy and Arthur Bradley of New York. Stanford White was the architect. It was sold to
George Dorr, Sr. about 1917. This property was sold to Leland and Amelia Whipple in May 1952, by the George A. Dorr Estate, and in Septem- ber 1952, Amelia Whipple opened a rest home on this property. This rest home was called Woodlawn Manor
and was a successfully operated bus- iness with up to 23 beds. In May 1957, this property was sold to David Alex- ander of Walpole, N. H. Mr. Alexander has continued this business since the date of purchase.
THE SCENE OF TWO BAD FIRES ON MAIN STREET
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From "The Book of Old Newport"
The scenes of two of the worst fires the town has ever experienced are shown above.
The upper picture shows the Amos Little residence (the present site of the Winston Hotel -- and before the Silsby & Johnson Hardware store block was built) and a corner of the Sugar River House, which stood on the site of what was later the Phoenix Hotel and what today is the Coniston Theatre. The little residence was built in 1819. The big fire of November 1, 1867 burned them both. The picture is from a daguerreotype.
The second bad fire occurred in June 1885, and consumed the two buildings shown in the lower picture and the town hall, which replaced the Doctor Swett house. A Doctor John McGregory had occupied this house before Doetor Swett and at the time the town hall was built, the house was moved to Ash Street and is presently the residence across the street from the Peerless Build- ing. The brick building shown in the picture was the site of the First National Bank, which did business at that location until soon after the Richards Block was built, when it moved across the street.
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BICENTENNIAL OFFICERS AND COMMITTEES
HONORARY CHAIRMAN Major Samuel H. Edes
GENERAL CHAIRMAN Arthur O. Bergeron
STEERING COMMITTEE
M. J. Downing Harry Woodard
Henry E. Mahoney Frank Winter
DIRECTORS
Russ Gardner Gordon B. Flint Amelia Whipple
Pat Zullo Alfred MacDonald
Frances Pratt Ethel Roberts
L. M. Perkinson Gladys Roe Inez Ferriter
SECRETARY Madlon Karr
TREASURER Arthur O. Bergeron
BICENTENNIAL BOOKLET STAFF
EDITOR Henry E. Mahoney ASSISTING STAFF
Arthur O. Bergeron Harry Woodard
M. J. Downing Frank Winter
Evan Hill
ADVISORS Raymond Barrett Ed DeCourcy
SPONSOR SOLICITORS
Harry Woodard
M. J. Downing
PICTURE EDITOR Ollie Turpeinen
Mrs. Barbara Holden
TYPISTS Mrs. Helen Weigle Mrs. Rose Farrington
Mrs. Catherine Woodard
OLD CUTS AND ORNAMENTS
Samuel H. Edes Cleon E. Bartlett
Material-pictures and stories :- contributed by a large group of citizens in- cluding the clergy and church leaders of Newport, those whose names appear as authors of stories printed, those who made and loaned photos, and John W. McCrillis, Bernard Towne, Mrs. Ann Tenney, Richard Stone, Harold Buker, Bertha Winter, Telephone Operators, Capt. Robert Pierce, Edward Welch, Frank Martin and especially-Major Samuel H. Edes.
Corer Credit, Buker Airways and Lou Thompson
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