March 31, 1983
Picture #1 – The Boston Store was once at 105 N. Main St. where Second Time Around is now.
Readers who remember the Boston store, 105 N. Main St., will be going back from 1914-15 up to about 1930.
That store, part of a chain, was first listed in a 1915 city directory, but it may have started business in 1914, a year for which there was no city directory. And it continued until 1929, but was not listed in the 1930 directory.
Today’s “Potluck” photo showing the Boston Store will help readers recall the store and the island display case where special merchandise was featured.
The manager of the store is undoubtedly one of the men in the photo, but I do not know which. The only person identifiable to me is the woman on the left, Helen “Maudie” Kuhn, a cousin.
The photo was brought to me recently by Keith Kuhn, Willard, a grandnephew of Helen, both of them part of the family that left Fostoria many years ago.
Boston Store, at 105, was where the Second Time Around store is now and where Kleinhen’s Office Supply was for many years.
The first manager of the store wa Harry Eimas. He continued in that position until 1919, at which time L.M. Cooper became manager until about 1922. L.D. Moss managed the store in 1992-23. J.W. McNeill became manager in 1924 and remained through 1926. The last manager was Kathryn Weber in 1927-1929, when the store closed.
Boston Store stocked ladies’ ready-to-wear dry goods, millinery, men’s and boys furnishings, infants’ wear, shoes and toilet articles. Its advertise- ment taken from a July 1923 Review microfilm, provides a clue to merchandise and prices of that era.
History of Main Street was covered in earlier “Potluck” articles, but today’s feature photo wasn’t available then.
READER FEEDBACK VISITOR FROM TENNESSEE
I get a lot of correspondence and telephone calls from readers, but rarely do I get a telephone call from as far away as Lawrenceburg, Ten., one week and then a visit from the caller there the next.
That happened recently when Ray Binkley, a former Fostorian who grew up here and now resides in Lawrenceburg, telephoned. I wasn’t home at the time so he left a message that he would be seeing me soon.
He and his wife came to town to visit family and old friends. Whenever Binkley’s St. Wendelin graduating class has a reunion, they come back then too. The last one was last year.
Binkley and I spent some time together one afternoon, reminiscing about people and places and looking at the album he has preserved.
Ray thought some of the pictures in the album would help me recall the old Central Gym, which was a “Potluck” subject. That’s kind of a standing joke, since I admit I don’t remember the gym.
In that album was an interior view of the gym, showing the bleachers and one of St. Wendelin’s basketball teams. It was fun looking at the many faces of the youths who also belonged to the “Y,” where I played basketball with them.
In our conversation, Binkley recalled carrying papers for The Times, and Stella Hicks, the circulation manager. He remembered the “Potluck” article about the Union Dairy Co., where he worked at one time as a routeman. He also recalled some who worked there besides the officials, Jack Reeves and O.E. Duckworth, including Roscoe Rowe, Glenn Marshall, two of the Pierce boys and others.
Binkley said when he took the job at Union Dairy he didn’t even know how to hitch up a horse, but he needed the job and somehow harnessed the horse correctly.
He said milk was 10 cents a quart then and that who delivered were paid strictly on commission.
Finally, Binkley was called back to Union Carbide from layoff and he was glad. Later, he went to Lawrenceburg to work in Union Carbide’s plant there and stayed until retirement.
The Binkley’s like their adopted town. They both play a lot of gold. He said he took all his fishing gear with him when they moved but he has never used it (too many snakes).
They get back to Fostoria two or three times a year to visit her mother, Mrs. Frank Foos, and his sister.
Binkley said he always looks forward to getting the RT to see the obituaries, “Potluck” and what has happened in town.