Long ago, our town was comprised of several self-sufficient villages with their own schools and stores. Eventually, the seven one-room school houses were consolidated into one, and the several stores, which sold everything from grain to “chewin’ tobacca”, eventually closed, leaving only one, the village “general store”.
Former resident and member of the Gazette editorial board, Sue Martin, researched and recorded the history of the general store for a 2013 article, relying on information gleaned from The Willimantic Chronicle, The Willimantic Journal, The Hampton Gazette, “and especially Violet Marquis”, whose memories and photographs of our town have helped to preserve its history. According to the article, the original general store opened in 1816 when Griffin Stedman sold the property to Joseph Prentis and Dan Buckley. In 1844, William Brown purchased the house and the store, an 1869 Atlas listing Brown as a dealer in “dry goods and grocer”. In 1890, Charles and Sidney Guild, whose surname is still associated with the building next to and north of the store that has served as a boarding house, a nursing home, and apartments, bought the store, which burned shortly after the purchase. “It was undoubtedly the work of an incendiary, as everything was all right at half past 10’clock, when Mr. Guild left the store,” according to a newspaper article, later reporting that the building, the barn, and $1500 worth of stock was insured, and the store re-opened one year later, and noting, “We hope the people will give them a liberal patronage.”
The store would fall victim to fires two more times: once in 1911 when owner T. J. Roberts accidentally dropped a lighted match on the cellar floor which was saturated with oil, and “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”; and in 1939, when the Fire Department couldn’t save the building “because the well on the property was so close to the fire as to be inaccessible”.
In 1915, Frank Phillips operated the store till Charles Burnham leased it in 1918, and in 1928, Amy Saunders purchased the property, running the store until 1947 when it was sold to John Looney. During this era, the “Universal Food Store”, as it was known then, housed the post office, and the scales to weigh items were located in the front of the store.
From “Hampton Remembers”:
My great uncle Charlie Burnham ran the store and he was very civic-minded…when he 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
Way back I can remember the town scales were in front of the inn, and later were moved to in front of the store. Patrick Pearl used to do the weighing – hay and coal and whatever you were going to sell, to see how much to charge.
John Hammond
In 1947, John Looney purchased the General Store. Although Mr. Looney was described in an interview as “a little loony”, residents remember the store as a gathering place, where people shopped and socialized while they waited to collect their mail at the adjacent post office.
The early sixties was one of the most memorable of the store’s eras. This is partly because of the customers, the sixty kids who lived in the center of town which was called “the magic mile”, the stock, particularly the penny candy lining the counter, and the owner, Frannie Wade, a favorite among residents, particularly the younger generation.
“Fran was ‘like another kid’, generously extending ‘credit’ and slipping candy to the children,” Louis Chatey relayed in an interview. “On one memorable occasion, Fran obtained water balloons and smoke bombs from some vendors, leading to water balloon fights on the porch of the store.”
“I remember when we had a hurricane and he let us take the ice cream because it was all melting,” Sandy Reynolds recalled.
“What a treat that was for all who came. Wasn’t a hard task to gather us once the word was out,” Kathy Thompson added. She also recalled that Mr. Wade allowed kids to charge items on the honor system.
“We would take scraps of paper and write an IOU for how much we owed and then tacked it to a shelf edge near the register,” Susan Latimer Perez affirmed. “When we had the money, we paid, and took down the paper.”
And what items there were for purchase: Mad Magazine, the National Lampoon, Beatles cards and baseball cards, candy cigarettes, bubble gum cigars, little wax bottles filled with something sweet, wax teeth and lips. “Unlike kids today, our generation knew how to safely run and play with big wads of wax in our mouth,” Louis wrote.
And then there were the contests. “I remember Randy having contests with anyone who wanted to challenge him to eat a half-gallon of ice cream or down a Coke faster,” Kathy recalled.
“I remember Mr. Wade having ice cream eating contests with the kids that hung out there,” Susan remembered. “Whoever ate the ice cream on a stick the quickest didn’t have to pay for it. What a marketing strategy when you have a bunch of paying kids!”
Allan Freeman relayed that he tried to bargain for a bottle of orange-aid, a more costly selection than other drinks. Mr. Wade challenged, “If you can drink the whole thing, you can have it for a dime.” Half way through, Al realized his mistake, so he went to the Post Office and sold cups of it to customers for ten cents. Though it might have earned him a “junior degree in marketing”, the stunt also resulted in a memorable stomach ache, and Allan learned “not to make deals with Mr. Wade.”
After Frannie Wade, the Wentworth’s ran the store, continuing the wonderful inventory (notably of penny candy). The next decade saw the changing of many hands. Earl Smith ran the store in 1970, followed by Carl and Pat Kraschnefski in 1974, Albert and Elizabeth Chabot in 1976, and in 1978, Martha and Edward Hourihan purchased the store and increased the stock to include bird seeds, animal feeds, and local crafts. In the early 80’s, Jeanne and Kevin Kavanagh leased the store and started a popular feature, “Person in the Store”, modeled after the interview style: “Man on the Street”. Residents participated by writing an answer to a local question of interest, and these anonymous views would be frequently published in the Hampton Gazette.
The General Store was generally open to the airing of opinions, and never was this truer than in the next memorable era: Quentin Woodward’s. The store thrived as a gathering place, around the counter and on the porch, where elders rocked in the chairs and kids’ bicycles formed a line at the store front. Particularly on Sundays, cases of doughnuts and pastries would disappear if you weren’t there in time. But it wasn’t only the baked goods that drew the crowds, it was Quentin. People came to visit with him and solicit his opinions on political matters. Quentin knew the issues, he knew the town, and he knew, as he put it, “the math”. There wasn’t anything he couldn’t reduce to a logical solution. As one resident said, “Quentin could talk the bark off the tree.” More importantly, “he was fiercely protective of everyone’s right to speak freely.”
Quentin also expanded the inventory exponentially to include – well, anything you could possibly need. His store was stocked with more than 4000 items from 70 vendors, and more than 20 residents were employed there. Along with everything on your weekly grocery list, there were seasonal items – seeds and fertilizer in the spring, charcoal and lighter fluid during summer, kerosene and lamps for hurricane season, canning materials for the harvest, salt and shovels for snow and ice. And holidays – Valentines and Mother’s Day cards, hot dogs and hamburgers on Memorial Day and the 4th of July, Halloween pumpkins and decorations, Thanksgiving staples – stuffing mix and cranberry sauce, Christmas ornaments and gifts. There was a fax machine, a copy machine, and we could make keys there, and the General Store’s generator saw residents through hurricanes and blizzards. We could purchase grinders, french fries, fried chicken and onion rings, and on a Saturday night, pick up pizzas and rent movies. It was a general store in the old fashioned sense, included in an Associated Press story on their revival and resurgence across America.
At his funeral, when most of the town came to honor the legendary store owner, Jo Freeman’s metaphor was most accurate, “Quentin equaled the General Store, and the General Store equaled Hampton.”
The store was closed from 2001 to 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. Throughout these years, the inventory was not as extensive, yet we could depend on the same delicious food.
The store has recently re-opened under the ownership of Kara Hicks, who has brought her considerable culinary and decorating skills to our village. She and her fiancée, Mike Henry, have finished many necessary improvements, renovating the apartment above the store, where the couple lives, equipping the kitchen with commercial appliances, and giving the store front a new face lift. It’s beautiful, with fresh white paint, bright red trim, striped awnings and white lights on the porch for night time. The interior is as charming, cozy and welcoming, and having the feel of a “Country Store”, with an extensive stock, ranging from grocery items, through delicious baked goods, to gifts, with plans to expand in the future.
If you haven’t yet visited, you owe yourself that favor. Welcome the new owners and let them know how much we appreciate that the doors of the Hampton General Store have re-opened!