Downtown Stockton Springs looking to the east, showing all the buildings before any tearing down was done. Mate LaFurley’s store was in what was called the Denslow Block, with a dance hall upstairs that was also used for meetings, etc. To the east of Mate’s was Walter Trundy’s store, which is now gone. To the west of Mate’s store were other businesses. The Rebekah Lodge and the Eastern Star both met in the upstairs of one or another of those buildings. In later years, Shep Edwards had a store in the downstairs of that westernmost end building.
Across the street during the 1930s and 40s the westernmost building housed Norm Staples’ grocery, which later became the old town office. The easternmost building on the corner of School Street housed Mel Pinkham’s Grocery and Ice Cream Parlor. You can see the hotel, which is still there, on the other corner. Next to that was the old garage that during WWII housed a small contingent of soldiers, several of whom married local girls and became Stockton residents forevermore.
Across the street from the garage (where Wyman’s store now stands) was a long wooden building which was Sanborn’s store, probably the most used grocery in town as they did twice a week house calls for orders and deliveries. They also sold men’s work pants, boots, etc. in an addition attached to the store. Next to that was a blacksmith shop. According to Marion Fisher, “Somewhere in an upper room of one of the Main Street buildings my grandmother’s sister Ida Merrithew had a dressmaking establishment. She was a good seamstress with few social skills, I might add – an old maid in the most negative connotation of the word. But she could make a beautiful gown.”
Help from: Veronica Magnan & Marion Fisher, Stockton Springs Historical Society
Catalog Number LB2007.1.102606