A Peek into Summers County’s Past: Restaurants in Talcott

TALCOTT W.Va. (Hinton News) – Editor’s Note: Local history collector William Jones is back with a new edition of A Peek into Summers County’s Past. This week, he is discussing restaurants in Talcott.

This week’s tale is about a piece from my grandfather, Bernard Thompson’s, personal collection. It is a photo from when he was only 23 years old in 1950 and depicts him on the porch of Talcott Lunch Stand with a few of his friends at that time. From left to right in the photo are Bill Mann, my grandfather Bernard Thompson, Joe Mann and Howard Biggers. The photo was taken by Roy Grimes.

Talcott Lunch Stand was opened in Talcott in the late 1940s by Loyd Lowry and closed in either 1962 or 63. It must have been the “hangout spot,” for the younger generation of Talcott in its day because on just about every ad I have ever seen from it in the 1950s, it simply says, “Talcott Lunch Stand Where Everyone Meets – Talcott.”

Over the years, Talcott has seen other restaurants, beer joints or just plain old “hangouts.” One was The Old Mill, which was located along Route 3 at the bottom of the schoolhouse hill. Woods Store that sat beside Thompson’s Garage was a very small building but was large enough to accommodate a bar and dance hall in the back part of it. It was owned by Russel Woods and operated by his daughter, Kathlyn Woods. Not sure of the spelling, but she was known by the locals as simply “Mrs. Geeter” or “Mrs. Jeeter.”

There was an old one-room schoolhouse as you start up Pie Hollow in Talcott. This was referred to as “The Harris School,” Hughy Sweeney purchased it when it stopped being used as a school and opened a nightclub. In this vicinity was also a little ice cream business called Lusters Ice Cream Shop. It sat near where the Brownie Movie Tent Show would set up when it was coming through the Talcott area at the mouth of Pie Hollow. Some of the information I acquired for this story was received from fellow local and historian Louise Standard.

A business by the name of Kittingers Beer Joint somewhere in Talcott. My grandfather Bernard being the pack rat he was got several items from it when it closed. Most people have seen a Toms peanut jar. He got two of them that sat on the bar in this business. One is the standard size and the other is a huge Toms peanut jar that I have never seen another one like it. He also kept a glass Lance potato chip jar with a metal lid. I now have them in my collection. So I guess you could call me a third-generation pack rat.

I am sure there must have been other restaurants etc. in Talcott. I am purely hypothesizing here, but back in the day, hotels in small towns such as Talcott ran their dining room for all meals during the day for both their guests and the citizens of the community. Valley View Hotel, which was in operation in Talcott near where the post office sits today likely did just that.

Everyone in this area is familiar with the round house that sits on the Second Baptist Church side of the road in Talcott. Growing up, this little round house always fascinated me. My grandfather always told me it was originally built for a restaurant in the 1930s. Until recently, I was never able to find any reference to this, only his claim of having eaten there as a child. 

After stopping at a yardsale at this little house back in the summer, the owner told me that they had been told the same thing and that it was called something with the word “Moon” in it. So I started doing some digging and found the ad in the photo from Oct. 28, 1930, for the “Yellow Moon Sandwich Shop.” It sold sandwiches, lunch and drinks by a lady named Nita Haynes.

From what I understand in my research, Haynes did not live here and would run the sandwich shop when she would come into Talcott from out of state. She must have been a fantastic cook because from what I have been told and just like her advertisement says she became known as the “The Hamburger Queen” of Talcott.

Did you know about all of these establishments that were once in Talcott?

If you have a story from the area’s history to share, send an email to news@hintonnews.com.