I was fortunate to have two people just a little older than me tell me their experiences as children when their folks ran a village store in East Boothbay. Both of them, Carroll McKown and Nancy Pillers, live elsewhere but visit at least once a year. I'm grateful to them for their memories of the store.

The present post office in East Boothbay was built in 1886 to replace a store that burnt in 1885. The new 1886 store, which also housed the post office at times, operated for many decades. Albra McDougall ran it until he retired in the 1930s, to be replaced by Ken Gray who ran it as part of the Nationwide chain. About 1945 Carroll McKown's parents, Francis "Mac" and Mildred McKown, bought the business after her father's sister, Thelma McKown Barlow, wrote him in Ohio that the store was up for sale, urging him to return to buy it. To Carroll's delight, the gray store cat went with the sale.

McKowns' IGA

The McKowns decided to go with the IGA chain instead of Nationwide for better quality, selection of merchandise, and support as an independently owned and operated store instead of being in a chain. Mildred told Carroll it was a struggle at first. After all, there was Earle Fuller's store just a couple of hundred feet away across the bridge, and the corner store about 1,000 feet south. But when East Boothbay had their first Fisherman’s Fair in 1947, the store made enough money to pay off the mortgage. Eventually a soda fountain was added, located in the back beside the meat display case. "It had the best ice cream sodas, frappes, banana splits, and sundaes you ever had! I used to bring my friends there for lunch until I got fired for eating up all the profits.

"In later years my mother pushed for a beer license. It was controversial at the time, but granted by the licensing authority. That was very helpful for our business as fishermen came over from Bristol to buy beer and do some shopping. Although not a major part of our business, Commodore MacMillan used to buy food for his missions to the Arctic at our store. Then he sailed the Bowdoin over to the Harbor for further outfitting before the voyage. He invited the school kids to go with him, and I have a special memory of sitting on the bow of the Bowdoin during one trip."

During the McKown years, the store was open seven days a week from about 8 a.m. until after 10 p.m. with no additional help. Both helped customers of course, but they had their separate responsibilities. Francis did the stocking and ran the fruit/vegetable and meat departments. Francis's brother-in-law, Clint Barlow, often brought in fresh seafood and shrimp for sale. Mildred handled the cashier duties, accounting, and ordering of inventory. Carroll wrote, "My mother, although not a high school graduate, was one smart cookie. She did the inventory and ordering and accounting. When customers bought groceries, she wrote the item prices on the paper bag and added them up. Long lists! The customers used to tell her that when they got home, they rechecked her work and never found a mistake."

The Layout

Carroll said, "From my child-eyes, the store was large, roomy, clean, and not cluttered. The cashier counter was at the front left window; behind that was the fruit and vegetable counter.  There were three (or four) lines of shelving running front to back. The soda fountain was at the back left side, the meat counter on the right, and the butcher table and utensils behind that. A large walk-in freezer was behind that. A door led to the back room where there was a furnace, desk, safe, and cot. Beyond that, another door led to the back half of the building. The car, coal bin, boxes of non-perishables etc. were stored there.

"A long wooden staircase led up the back to the inside 'shed' which we didn’t use (I played and built things there). Then, there was the 'outhouse'—a modern commode but in a totally unheated shed. Great memories of that . . . Then, a few steps up was our second and third floor home. At first we had a pump for water and no inside bathroom. Major remodeling gave us an electric stove, modern kitchen cabinetry, but we still kept our cast iron wood stove. Best of all, except more nice cabinetry along the hallway, was a wonderful, large, modern, indoor bathroom [Lester Barter was the plumber]. My bedroom was the top left front room and my parents had the top right front room. The third floor was just extra storage, but not used except as my play space."

The size of the store and its location near the town landing gave it a business advantage.  The summer people also provided a real boost. However,  the opening of the new, large A&P grocery store in Boothbay Harbor, located where Sherman’s Store is, provided a lot of competition for the three grocery stores in East Boothbay and was a sign of the changes afoot brought by the car.

The McKowns ended their ownership of the store about 1952. I would understand if they were in a state of complete exhaustion after a work week of 15-hour days for all seven days! The subsequent owners, the Pillers family, will be covered in the continuation of this article, but it is planned for a few months from now. I thank Carroll McKown for her fine account of her parents' business.