PENCE SPRINGS W.Va. (Hinton News) – It is time for another edition of A Peek into Summers County’s Past. Every week, local history collector William Jones discusses items from his collection and their historical significance. In this edition, Jones is talking about the Rhodes & Pyles Store. Keep reading to learn more.
To begin the conversation, Jones stated, “This week’s piece is a tad different in that it is an assortment of pieces in my collection that can all be linked back to one aspect of history in Pence Springs. First of all, I will address the old photo of the Rhodes & Pyles Store that was in Pence Springs proper. It was built by W.D. Rhodes, was within walking distance of the railroad depot, and sat in front of the ferry house, which still stands to the right of the current bridge.”
“Similarly to every other community along the Greenbrier River, Pence Springs had a ferry that would take people across the river to the Pence Springs Hotel, to partake of the spring water or to one of the other lodging facilities such as the Valley Heights Hotel or the Hines Boarding House, before the Colangeto Construction Company constructed the first bridge in 1910. That bridge stayed in use until it was taken out during the flood of 1985 when a house trailer slammed into it toppling it over.”
Jones continued, “Over the years I have seen various photos of this building, many of them older. But I find this one unique with this truck in front of the store. There was a gas pump to the left of the building, on the side where you accessed the bridge. This photo belonged to Alvin Garten. His wife Betty recently gave it to me to add to my collection. I can’t help but wonder who was leaning over sitting in the truck when this photo was taken. Notice the post office sign hanging on the front porch of the store. This was before the new cinder block and brick post office building was built on the opposite side of the railroad tracks and was used until recent years.”
Moving on to other items, Jones noted, “Now I will describe the two antique pieces you can see in the second photo. The first is a large oak McCray meat cooler. It measures roughly 88” tall by 30” deep by 83” wide. One identical to this belonged to a late Pence Springs native. I acquired the doors and their hardware three years ago. This piece was in what is now the J&J Country Roads Store. Suzanne Humphrey was just like me in that she loved antiques and history, especially local history.”
“When the owners removed it from the store Humphrey acquired it decades ago. It had been painted with layer after layer of this bright green paint. She was in the process of removing the paint and had the doors and hardware taken off of the very large cabinet and in her basement to strip the paint from them. She had completed stripping the doors, and hardware, and only the cabinet remained untouched.”
“The cabinet, however, was destroyed in a fire in the early 1990s. I was only 7 or 8 at the time, but I can remember waking up to the sound of a horn blowing at about 2 a.m.,” Jones said. “A young man driving a delivery truck through this area saw the flames, pulled over and started blowing his horn to wake someone up. I was the first one awake in my house and looked out our front window that faces Route 3. I instantly saw Billy and Suzanne Humphrey’s garage engulfed in flames. I ran and woke up my parents.”
Revisiting the memory, Jones said, “My father, who is good friends with Mr. Humphrey, rushed to his house. And the two of them commenced saving anything they could from the burning building. One thing was a vintage Broncho that was stored inside the garage. It was torn down to rebuild and was not running. So my father hooked a chain to it and pulled it out of the garage off of the jacks it was sitting on. By that point, the tires were already on fire. I remember watching from my living room window as Dad pulled it across the yard as the flames on the tires twisted around and around as it was being dragged away from the garage.”
“I remember being sad they had lost their garage and the contents. Even though I was so young I remembered the large cabinet and knew it was destroyed. I was friends with their late son, Andy Humphrey, he too loved history. I told him my intentions of replicating the meat cooler in what will become The Hines Boarding House 2.0 in Pence Springs. He traded me the doors in 2020.”
Jones went on to say, “I have been told this meat cooler came out of W.D. Rhodes Store when newer store equipment was being installed in the building. The owners of Keatley’s Grocery on the other side of the river purchased it to use in their new establishment when it was first opened in the 1940s. The other store photo is one of the earliest photos I found of it. Originally, it was a garage and store. Having two garage bays to work on automobiles, these were eventually closed in to expand the grocery side of the business.”
“The other piece in this week’s column is the antique cash register you see here. It is a ‘National’ wood tone machine. Tim Nelson had acquired it, and then I purchased it from him last year to add to my collection. My father remembers it still being in use in the store when he was a child. Sometime in the 60s or 70s it was replaced with a newer cash register and stored in a back storage area in the store.”
“It still has decades of flood mud in it from all of the times the water was in the store. 1972, 1963, 2010, 1977, 1967, 1973, 2016, 1985 and 1996 were all of the times that the Greenbrier River crested high enough to be inside of the store. The years are listed in order of the lowest crest to the largest flood on record. A second-story apartment was added in the 1950s.”
To conclude, Jones stated, “Something many people are too young to remember is that this building was built around a tree. My father helped the owners at that time, Bill and Carol Persinger cut it and removed it from inside the store.”
With that, another edition of A Peek into Summers County’s Past has concluded. Did any of the information surprise you?
Anyone wishing to share a story from the area’s history can send an email to news@hintonnews.com.
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