Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Penfield Grocery Store Closes - August 1967

Here's another one of those poignant articles that appeared in the Lorain Journal to mark the passing of an era. This one, which ran on August 31, 1967, tells of the closing of the Penfield Grocery Store.

The store was out in Penfield Township, on State Route 18 east of Wellington. I don't have a specific address except that it was listed in the phone book as being east on Route 18, or I would drive out there and see if the building is still there.

When I first saw this clipping, I thought the store was out by Penfield Junction – which is what the southern end of Broadway near Clearview High School was once commonly called. But since I couldn't find any listing for the grocery in the Lorain phone book, I figured out it was Penfield Township.

Incidentally, Drew Penfield – who has his own historical website (Lake Shore Rail Maps) and comments occasionally on this blog – is a direct descendant of Lewis Penfield, who along with his brother Peter Penfield and other Penfield family members settled Penfield Township.

Anyway, I like to feature these 'store closing' items here on the blog; it seems a shame that when local businesses close after serving their communities for decades, they are often forgotten. Putting them up on this blog at least keeps their name out in cyberspace for a while – and guarantees that something will show up in a Google search if someone happens to enter the name of the business.

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