My family went there many times in the 1960s, mainly to buy old-fashioned candy. It was the only reason we ever went to Huron (unless we were driving through it to get to Cedar Point).
A 1988 article about the store in the Toledo Blade revealed that it had just observed its 25th year in business, which means that it would have opened around 1963. At the time of the 1988 article, Sue Wiles Cloak and her husband, Charles, owned and operated the old-fashioned store, which stocked more than 5,000 items. Addison Wiles was the founder of the store, according to the April 22, 2010 edition of Huron Hometown News.
There were also Wileswood Country Store outlets at airports in Cincinnati and Dayton.
The Huron store has been closed for quite a while now, but the iconic emporium lives on in memory and through its many appearances on vintage postcards. Most of them have this inscription or something similar: "WILESWOOD COUNTRY STORE, Huron, Ohio. Known as “Ohio’s Most Unusual Store,” this old-fashioned store recreates the general store of the 1890’s and early 1900’s. Featured are penny candies, Farm Made foods, calico, pewter, glassware, soaps and candles, Early American Reproductions, Sarsaparillas, and a famous 5 cent bag of Hot Popcorn. Open all year 'round.”
Here’s my “now” shot (below) from last Sunday morning.
It’s almost unrecognizable, with the modifications to the building, the street sign clutter and the addition of a light pole.
Kinda sad not seeing the large cutouts of Raggedy Ann and Andy waving out front.
Today, the building is home to Eastwood Environmental, as well as the Huron Chamber of Commerce, which maintains offices there.
7 comments:
Where can i find the popcorn? It was the best!!
Thank you for a walk down memory lane!! We really miss our stop in Huron on our way to our condo in Port Clinton!
I bought a coin collection today and found a popcorn cloth bag with the store name on it dated 1963. Pretty cool history here. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for this update. I used to schedule my flight connections through the Cincinnati airport deliberately so I could go to the store there. (The alternative was Atlanta, which was boring). Their old-fashioned candy was wonderful and all of the things like penny whistles and throwing tops and replicas of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence; slates and slate pencils, a do-nothing machine . . . I still have most of them. Except the candy, of course. Oh, except that I did actually save a few pieces of the little violet-flavored squares (smaller than CHoward's, but still delicious). I'm so sorry that the stores are closed.
I used to work at the stores in the Cincinnati airport. Miss them so much!
I worked in the Columbus airport location for a couple of years. This was back in the late 80's. I also worked in the Cincinnati stores for about a year. Was one of my first jobs and I loved working for them. I can still smell the popcorn popping...
Always loved going there for many reasons. One was that we were the last family to live in the house before it was transformed.
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