Vintage Postcard: Between Essex Inn and Post Office

Mary Wade's Vintage Postcard: Essex Inn, Main Street, Essex, NY — Mary Wade’s Vintage Postcard: Essex Inn and (once upon) home on Main Street, Essex, NY

We love sharing vintage artifacts and photos on our Essex on Lake Champlain Facebook page every week, and inviting our visitors to play some Vintage Essex Trivia. The old postcard above was shared with us by Mary Wade. Here’s the message she sent along with it:

Found this postcard a couple of years ago on Essex day. It shows the house that once stood between the Essex Inn and the Post Office building. It is the house we lived in when we first came to Essex, also [where] I was having my 8th Birthday party on Dec. 7th when the news came over the radio that Pearl Harbor had been bombed!! ~Mary Wade

I don’t recall that home standing on Main Street, so it must have been removed long ago. This photo appears to have been taken in the early 1900s. Does anyone know when or why the building was demolished? Perhaps an expansion of either the inn or post office building prompted it?

Take a look at some of the comments we received:

Dianne Lansing: What do the signs say?

Mary Wade: Not sure what the sign says. We lived in the apartment upstairs. Was told it was once a candy store. I don’t remember it being used when we were there. Maybe before we moved here. Anybody know??

The comments raised a couple more questions. Does anyone know if the building was once a candy store? The bottom half certainly looks familiarly like other Essex storefronts. Tell us if you know any other uses it once retained!

Vintage Photo: Essex Waterfront (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
Vintage Photo: Union Free School (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
Vintage Postcard: Essex High School (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
Essex Doodles Weekly: Essex Icons and Doodle Tips (www.essexonlakechamplain.com)
Daily Doodle: Ice Fishing on Beggs Point by Mary Wade (essexny.us)

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Comments

Harold Mock says

November 4, 2013 at 8:54 am

I can add to my sister Mary Wade’s comment.The Bowen family lived in the first floor apartment. I only remember the boys, Hollis and Loren. Hollis married Mary Leadwith. I am not sure if I spelled her last name correctly. I was standing in that window directly opposite from that Elm tree during a thunder storm when lightning struck it. I was lucky the tree fell away from the house into the street. I was one little boy that day.

- G.G. Davis, Jr. says
  
  November 7, 2013 at 1:27 pm
  
  Thanks, Harold. Keep the oral history coming! More, more, more… 🙂 And thanks for sharing the lightning story. Lucky boy!