Volume 15 , Issue 6

Old Fairvalley Building

I need your help again! This building no longer stands out at Fairvalley, Oklahoma. Just like all the other buildings, it is only a ghost at Fairvalley, in northwest Oklahoma. They are an image only in an old photograph or a memory in some pioneer's mind, writings.

Somewhere in the "Footprints Across Woods County" history book a similar picture exists because I remember the front, peaked area of the the building. I would really like to find out more about this photo. Was it a country store of some kind. [Click on photo to see larger view.]

Some of our readers back in 2002 wrote concerning this old building, "Linda, I have a clue for you that might be helpful in your search for what that building is you asked about in the last issue. I remember as a child seeing a building built in very much the same style here locally, just a couple of blocks from where I live now (Glens Falls, NY). It had a large, full cellar like the one in this picture, and the same arched facade in front. At that time you could barely read the hand-painted lettering in the arch. It was a feed and grain store. My mother said it had the large cellar, which was uncommon in houses of the era, (they were short and rarely under the whole building), because they stored root vegetables like potatoes, yams, beets, etc in the cellar for the winter in huge barrels. The building no longer exists; it was torn down decades ago, but there is another old building, just a few lots down from where that was that is still intact at the back of someone's house lot. My mother said it was a smithy shop when she was young, and she used to ride by there every day on the trolley from Lake George, (about 8 miles north of the city) where she lived then, to the Glens Falls Academy. She was one of just a few girls who were allowed to attend that academy at that time. The rest went to "normal" school in their hometowns. I don't know if your building is also a feed and grain store, but it sure looks very much like the one that was on Ridge St. here, in New York. I hope this info is helpful to you."   |  View or Add Comments (0 Comments)   |   Receive updates ( subscribers)  |   Unsubscribe

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