T
G ree n e Sce n e of the Pa st
his old photo hanging on the wall at Lippencott Alpacas Farm Store on Meadowbrook Rd. is fascinating for showing what public services were available to farming families at Adamson Store in Lippencott – or was it still called Martinsville? at the turn of the last century.
“If you look close you see that sign that says ‘Public Telephone pay station’ Lena Galing said, pointing to a detail in the amazingly sharp image. Underneath the sign is a wagon with two dapper African Americans wearing white shirts and dark vests, sitting in the drivers seat. To the right is a gathering of men, boys and a couple of working
dogs – hounds most likely used to hunt for game and warn families of intruders at the gate. Goods can be seen hanging in the windows of the store and advertisements are tacked to trees, posts and walls. This is what life looked like in 1895 in Lippencott, when everything you needed for everyday living might be found in stores like this and farmers
by Colleen Nelson
and their families gathered here to get their mail, make a still rare phone call and talk to neighbors about the weather, that most important of all topics when it comes to planting, harvesting or gauging what the next week might bring. Lena pointed to a young man in the middle, sitting beside his dog. “We think that’s my grandfather. We got this photo and the one of the old Lippencott distillery from our neighbor E.P. Taylor’s collection and I love having them in the shop to show people what this town used to look like. It had everything that a family needed. When I was growing up I remember the blacksmith shop being open, right across from the elementary school.” Today, Lippencott doesn’t have a store or a post office and every home does have a telephone, of course. The old store building is still there, its pre-twentieth century lines beautifully preserved, its outbuildings part of the landscape at the corner of Route 221 “Lippencott Road” and Meadowbrook Road. Phil and Cheryl Cowan live here now and the signs at the corner let you know that Lippencott Alpacas is just up that Meadowbrook Road, along with Buckin’ B Cattle Company. These historic homes and farms of Lippencott have survived to tell the story of late 19th century life in rural farming communities, The local store was an anchor and a bellwether for the new times that would come, things like telephones and eventually the gas stations when vehicles replaced the horses and wagons that came to town for supplies and stayed to shoot the breeze.
1894 Photo of Adamson Store in Lippencott, from the collection of E.P. Taylor. The photo at lower left is the same building, taken from the opposite side, today it is the Cowan residence. If you have an interesting old photo from the area you’d like to share, just send it to: GreeneScene of the Past, 185 Wade Street, Waynesburg, PA 15370. Or email to: info@greenescene.com with GreeneScene Past in subject line. The GreeneScene Community Magazine can even scan your original in just a few minutes if you bring it to our office. We are particularly interested in photos of people and places in the Greene County area taken between 1950 and 1980, though we welcome previous dates, too.
NOVEMBER / DECEMBER
2017 • GreeneScene Magazine
7