I commute from Vermilion to Oberlin each day, so I spend a lot of time driving Baumhart Road – which is great, because I pass the
Brownhelm Store twice a day. It's very handy. I love their homemade chicken paprikas and soups, as well as their wraps. Plus, it's a good place to stop for coffee at 6 o'clock in the morning (especially during the recent power failure in Vermilion).
(Oddly enough, I recently made the very pleasant acquaintance of a woman who coincidentally is the daughter of the culinary genius who makes that delicious chicken paprikas and all those great soups for the store.)
Anyway, I've been familiar with the Browhelm Store going back to the mid-1970s. Back then my friends and I rode our bicycles everywhere, and once or twice on the way to Mill Hollow we stopped at the Brownhelm Store for a pop or snack. It was – and still is – a real oasis out in the country.
The Browhelm Store changed hands this year, so it's a good time to look back at an earlier era in the store's history with perhaps its best known owners – Bill and Bonnie Cutcher. They bought the store way back in February 1969.
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| From the Feb. 13, 1969 Lorain Journal |
Below you'll find a great profile of the couple about five years after they became the owners. Both of them have very interesting backgrounds and became prominent in Browhelm Township because of their extensive community involvement. The article was written by
Journal Staff Writer Bob Cotleur and ran in the paper on April 14, 1974.
It's interesting getting a glimpse of the old store in the photo. Back then it was a gas station and the store portion of the building was not as large as it is now (
below).
When we'd camp in the area back in the Eighties and Nineties, we'd often stop at the Brownhelm store to pick up last minute items.
ReplyDeleteAs little kids in the mid-sixties, my brother and I would stay a few days every summer with our cousins on Cooper Foster. After playing hide and seek in the cornfields, climbing up trees and through a big drain pipe under the road, exploring an old abandoned farmhouse - we’d walk or ride our bikes to that little old store and buy popsicles. I recall the little freezer was just inside the door, the floor was smooth, worn wood - it was very “old-timey” and we never saw another customer. Hardly any cars would pass us on Baumhart Rd, as we’d walk to and back from the store, and popsicles were so much more enjoyable in the days before we all had air conditioning. This was just before the Cutchers bought the store.
ReplyDeleteLovely article, Dan. And the Journal piece is the kind of thing that's now extinct in newspapers, sad to say.
ReplyDeleteI have fond memories of the Brownhelm Mall. I grew up down the road and it was a treat to ride there on my bike on my way to practice at the Brownhelm school. In high school, my friend helped Bill in the garage doing repairs, so I hung out there from time to time. Bill and Bonnie were very involved with the community. I can still see Bonnie behind the counter, ringing up my purchase. Good memories...
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