It snowed last night – about four more inches. At the store late this afternoon everyone was very friendly and jovial. There was something very romantic and beautiful about the Hampton street at dusk – with lights in all the houses, snow blowing around lighted by the car headlights coming down the street, and the little oasis of light around the store…
from a diary entry of Alison Davis’ Hampton Remembers

Main Street — the name alone conjures images of rectangular buildings linked one to the next, underlined with sidewalks and lining a wide street through the middle of “town”, with window displays illustrating what’s for sale and signs announcing “we’re open” .
From the mill towns of New England to the mining towns of the west, we instantly recognize “Main Street” on our travels throughout the country whenever we encounter them; and they all feel familiar enough, friendly enough, to invite us to explore and stop for tea or coffee at one of their cafes. What is common to all, from the larger metropolises we’ve visited in Colorado, to the smaller villages of Vermont – is commerce.

In earlier eras, Hampton’s Main Street hosted an assortment of businesses. One of the first establishments was the “publick house”, the Chelsea Inn, which served customers for nearly two centuries. During the years when the town was well known as a “summer colony”, where “city folk” enjoyed fresh country air and recreational activities on Bigelow Pond, a hotel was built as an annex to the Inn, the “Prospect House”, to accommodate additional guests. There were reportedly five blacksmiths in town, busy enough to require appointments. The village blacksmith shop was equipped to shoe oxen as well as horses. Apparently oxen will fall if one of their hooves is lifted, so they were hoisted in a sling when they were shod, not an easy task, nor scene to envision. With the arrival of the railroad through town, Zaphne Curtis ran a livery stable and service on Main Street, transporting visitors to and from Hampton’s railroad stations. At various times, Main Street also offered a wagon shop, a harness business, a tea house, a grain pantry, a doctor’s office, a hospital, a gift shop, a boarding house, a bed & breakfast, an herbery, a cooking school, an insurance agency, and several stores.

Long ago, there were stores throughout the town. Phillips Grain Store was at the train depot on Station Road in the Rawson district. Two stores, Alvin Jewett’s and Amos Stone’s, were at the Clark’s Corner’s railway station. Jirah Hyde, the proprietor of Bigelow’s grist mill and saw mill ran a store there, and several proprietors operated a store at Hampton Springs, which at one time contained, along with grocery items, cats walking on the counter and in the winter, calves to keep them warm. On Main Street, there was a small store in the basement of the building that was once between the Congregational Church and the house to its north. It was replaced with the church’s chapel, and later with Holt Hall. Jonathan Clark’s 1858 map of Main Street identifies the house north of the present post office as the Silas Tiffany store. Charlie Burnham ran a meat market in the little building across from the current Town Hall. In “Hampton Remembers” Ethel Jaworski recalled, He had the scales and the chopping block and some arrangement to keep the meat cold. He wore the long white aprons the way the butchers did and always had his sleeves pulled up with wide armbands to keep the cuffs up out of the way.”

And of course, there was the General Store, which, in earlier years, housed the Town Clerk’s office in its upstairs and the post office in the small room which now serves as a kitchen. Everyone gathered to wait for the evening mail which was picked up at the train station and delivered to the General Store. Originally there were hitching posts in front for horses, and later a pump for gasoline, later still, a phone booth. The town scales, originally located in front of the inn, were eventually moved to the front of the store. John Hammond relayed in “Hampton Remembers” that Patrick Pearl used to do the weighing – hay and coal and whatever you were going to sell, to see how much to charge.

Though the building has burned three times, the site of the store has remained the same for two-hundred years. The original general store opened in 1816 under the proprietorship of Joseph Prentis and Dan Buckley. The next owner, William Brown, listed in an 1869 Atlas as a “dealer in dry goods and grocer”, purchased the store in 1844. In 1890, Charles and Sidney Guild, whose name is associated with the building north of the store, “The Guild House”, which served in the past as a boarding house, a hospital, and a nursing home, bought the store. Unfortunately, the building and most of its contents burned shortly afterwards. A newspaper article claimed that “It was undoubtedly the work of an incendiary, as everything was all right at half past 10’clock, when Mr. Guild left the store,” reporting that the building, the barn, and $1500 worth of stock was insured. The store re-opened in 1891, however it would burn two more times.

In 1911, owner T. J. Roberts accidentally started a fire in the basement when he dropped a lighted match on the oily floor. There was no Fire Department during this time, only a “bucket brigade”, neighbors responding to the alarm of the ringing church bells with pails full of water, and reportedly, “the flames spread through the structure with such rapidity that beyond a few stamps and money and mail in the post office together with a half dozen barrels of sugar and a little barbed wire, nothing was saved”. The third fire was in 1939, and although there was an established Fire Department at this time, its members couldn’t rescue the building from the flames “because the well on the property was so close to the fire as to be inaccessible”. In 1915, Frank Phillips, who with his brother Dwight also built the large store at the Rawson train station, operated the store till Charles Burnham, who previously ran the meat market across from Town Hall, leased it in 1918. When my great uncle Charlie Burnham ran the store in the center of town he came to your house in the morning and took your order and delivered it in the afternoon once a week, Ethel Jaworski recalled in “Hampton Remembers”. Amy Saunders purchased the property in 1928, operating the “Universal Food Store” until 1947 when it was sold to John Looney. A diary entry in “Hampton Remembers” states: Jack Looney got a crate of gorgeous Macintosh apples in and he was polishing each one with a cloth. He says every person who came in while he was polishing asked him “why dontcha spit on ‘em? Neighbors Don Hoffman and Rad Ostby encouraged Mr. Looney to build a ski tow behind the store. Uncertain as to whether or not he took the advice for spitting on the apples, but the ski lift never materialized. Mr. Looney would offer a free Moxie to anyone who could drink it all at once, and he let the neighborhood kids run tabs. Some residents remember the small pieces of paper taped to the shelves near the register with everyone’s totals.

The next proprietor continued this practice. Frannie Wade, who ran the store in the sixties during one of its most memorable eras, was one of its most memorable owners. Characterized as “like another kid”, Mr. Wade offered lines of credit to the youthful clientele, sponsored soda guzzling and ice cream eating contests, and stocked the shelves with Mad Magazine and National Lampoon, baseball and Beatles cards, candy cigarettes and bubble gum cigars, penny candy, and wax bottles, teeth and lips. The General Store was the social center of Main Street for the sixty kids who lived in the village along “the magic mile”.

After Frannie’s tenure, the business changed many hands. First, the Wentworths, followed by Earl Smith in 1970, Carl and Pat Kraschnefski in 1974, Albert and Elizabeth Chabot in 1976, Martha and Edward Hourihan in 1978, and in the early 1980’s, Jeanne and Kevin Kavanagh. During these years, animal feeds and bird seeds, local crafts, and grinders were included in the inventory.

In 1983, the store opened under new ownership, embarking on its second most memorable era. Quentin Woodward expanded inventory to include over 4000 items, seasonal supplies, holiday cards and decorations, grinders, fried chicken, pizzas, and Sunday morning donuts, machines to copy, fax, and make keys, and movies to rent. With the expansion of inventory came the expansion of customers. Included in an Associated Press article on the revival of old-fashioned general stores across America, ours returned to a gathering place similar to the time when folks came evenings to pick up their mail.

After Quentin’s retirement in 2001, the store was closed until 2006, when new owners Marc and Chris Ayotte renovated it extensively. After a few years, Robert Rodriguez leased the store, and then William Oefinger, and lastly Randy Saylor prior to the store’s closing for a number of years. The economy of the last couple of decades made it difficult to manage a small, rural store, on a less-traveled route, competing with the likes of Walmart ten miles away in either direction.

Townsfolk were so excited when in 2022, owner Kara Hicks announced the opening of our general store with a fresh coat of paint and striped awnings. The interior surpassed our anticipation. With a varied array of merchandise — general groceries, freshly baked breads and treats, a freezer stocked with homemade “take and bake” meals, vintage gifts, toys, and Hampton apparel — the natural charm is enhanced with a “country store” atmosphere which invites exploration. Warmth is what one encounters entering on a blustery winter afternoon, and an old-fashioned soda fountain, serving favorites like root beer floats and ice cream sodas, is a popular summertime destination. True to its historic character, it remains a cozy place to gather, continuing the common thread which has run throughout the store’s history — friendliness. It’s always been a place where people can return from work, or from vacation, or from college, or from years away, and feel at home.