
Recollections of the Country Store
at the Old Red MIll
1961
Herbert Montgomery
Dr. Montgomery developed a plan to remodel the main floor of the mill to give the appearance of a typical old-time country store. He engaged Earl Sampson, a local builder, to remodel the interior so it would resemble an old country store. One of the things he did was to attach Homosote panels to the rough interior walls along Jefferson Street. (Homosote was a fire-resistant, insulating fiber board.) An old store was closing in Gap Mills and after buying the display counters, Herbert helped move them from the store back to the Old Red Mill.
Dave Tuckwiller was the country store manager and was gathering various items to display and sell. He also brought in antiques, other items, and products to sell at the store. Clarence Jones was a local cabinet maker and had some of his pieces in the store.
Since country stores always stocked flour, there had to be flour for sale at the Old Red Mill. Herbert went to Reeds Mill at Second Creek (in 1961) to buy 10 bags of flour for the store. The miller asked him why he wanted to buy so much flour, Herbert replied that it was going to be sold at the Old Red Mill. The miller refused to sell it because legally he was only allowed to sell at retail to end users but not to wholesale customers. Herbert had to go home empty handed.
Paul Detch
Since Paul was in the 5th or 6th grade when the interior of the Old Red Mill was being remodeled as a replica of a typical old-time country store, he was too young to work on the project. However, he was impressed with the old Revolutionary war era post office with its mailboxes that was brought in from Blakers MIll. David Tuckwiller was the manager of the Old Red Mill store and treasurer of the corporation.
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