A Peek into Summers County’s Past: The Yellow Moon Sandwich Shop

Everyone knows about the round house that used to be in Hinton for the railroad, but did you realize that Talcott, WV also has had a “round house” since the 1930s? This structure is shaped round, was a restaurant when it was first constructed and was used as a home until recent years. It still stands beside Route 3 and is currently painted yellow.

I remember my Grandfather, Bernard Thompson, always telling me that the “round house” in Talcott was built as a restaurant when he was a kid. It wasn’t until researching one of my precious articles on L.G. Rhodes Store that I uncovered advertisements for the “Yellow Moon Sandwich Shop” that was housed in this building.

The Yellow Moon was a bit before its time, having a round building built to operate the Yellow Moon Sandwich Shop in the 1930s and painted yellow to resemble the moon was a very interesting concept. This was a bit peculiar for that time, especially in Talcott, WV.

Nita Haynes opened the sandwich shop. Haynes lived out of state, either in Ohio or Pennsylvania, and would come to Talcott to spend her weekends, and had the restaurant open on Sundays until 10:30 p.m. This is how she operated for several summers.

Remember in its time, Talcott saw people from all over the country come to spend weekends and many people would spend entire summers. Just like my article, I wrote about the painting of Camp Diva that I acquired last year. Doctors, lawyers and socialites would come to Talcott to vacation and relax.

Haynes took advantage of this, created her own quirky restaurant catering to this influx of visitors. She served soft drinks and ice cream by the light of the moon, hence the name “Yellow Moon.” She also served sandwiches and hamburgers which was so successful that led to her being referred to as “The Hamburger Queen of Talcott.”

It opened in 1930 and my grandfather was born in 1927, so he was 3 when it opened. It must have been so successful and seemingly outlandish for Talcott, WV to have caused the memory of this restaurant to be implanted in such a young child’s mind.”