Edna Hutchins’ Store, the Odd Fellows Building
Some time ago I posted this picture from David Leavitt’s collection. It shows six women standing at a counter in Edna Hutchins’ Store in Corinna. At the time I was not sure of the identity of each lady. I’m now pretty sure they are named correctly in the caption I have added at the bottom of the picture: Mrs. Emery, Inga Ireland, Rose Tibbetts, Edna Hutchins, Sadie Wilber, Edith Ireland.
Can anyone share more about these ladies? Post your comments below.
Anyone else remember Edna? She ran the hot lunch program at the elementary school in town. I remember her standing over me in the lunch room, making sure I ate the spinach. Although this picture was taken many years earlier, that is definitely her standing behind the counter.
I think Edna’s store was in the Odd Fellows Building. (Anyone know for sure about this?). It was built on the north side of Main Street in the first decade of the 1900’s. You can see the store front on the first floor in the picture below.
In the next picture, taken from the belfry of the Stewart Library Building, you can see Main Street on a winter day in 1908. The Odd Fellows Building is in the center. The set of buildings now known as Traditions shows just beyond the intersection, near the upper center. Many will remember it as Pearson’s Store. The belfry of the Methodist Church can be seen in the upper left.
Notice the hillside to the East of the village, almost all open fields. Today most of that area is woodland.
In 1948, to make room for the expansion of the woolen mill, the Odd Fellows Building was moved across Main Street, turned around, and placed on steel girders over the river.
In 2000 when most of the buildings on Main Street were demolished for the EPA Superfund Eastland Woolen Mill clean-up, this building was declared to have historic value by the Maine Historic Preservation Commission. Federal money (the EPA) could not be used to demolish it. It was moved again. Now it sits on the Stetson Road. You will know it as the Farmer’s Table Restaurant.
Photo credit: David Leavitt Collection