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Flour, grain and feed mills and stores
What's on this page:
- 20th- and 21st-century flour, grain and feed mills and stores
- Flour, grain and feed mills and stores listed in directories and maps, 1900-1940
- 19th-century flour, grain and feed mills and stores
- 20th-century grocery and other food stores
- 20th-century meat markets and butcher shops
- 20th-century stores on wheels
- 20th-century dairies and milk product stores
- 20th-century bakeries
- 20th-century confectioneries and ice cream shops
- Ice sellers and companies
As late as 1941, and surely later, Freeland needed feed stores. The photo at top left was taken in 1941, shared by Charlie Gallagher who wrote: "My Pop (Bernie Jr.) holding my sister Sheila on the back of the cow. They would have been standing near the south end of St. John's parking lot on Vine Street. (Notice the cars in the background are on Fern St, not Ridge St.)" Although people would take their cows to open green space to graze, there were still people keeping chickens, butchers keeping livestock and poultry, people who owned horses, etc. Here are the three 20th-century feed stores I know of at present. More information is always welcome!
B.F.
Davis & Sons Feed Mill - Johnson
and Birkbeck streets (Benjamin F. Davis, proprietor). Before moving to
Johnson and Birkbeck, the Davis business was on Main Street and on
Centre Street between
Front and Walnut. This feed mill
appears on early Sanborn maps under B. F. Davis's name, as on the
detail from the 1900 map shown at near right. Note that it says that
the building was heated by steam and had oil lights. (The nearby Eagle
Hotel in this 1900 map detail is the site of what was later Krone's
store.) By 1923 a new building had been built on the corner of Birkbeck
and Johnson streets, as on map detail at right. Willam M. Davis III,
great-grandson of B. F. Davis, wrote to say that his grandfather was
William M. Davis who owned feed mill when he was a child.
An ad from 1924
read: B. F. Davis & Son, Freeland. Wholesale dealers in flour,
feed, grain, hay, sugar, poultry, food, etc. (Ed Merrick: Catholic
Reference Book and Parish Register, circa 1924) The photo at left and
newspaper article at right,
from Ed Merrick, show the aftermath of the devastating 1964 fire at
this
mill. 
DiSpirito
Bros. Flour and Feed - south
Washington Street at the railroad crossing. Jim DiSpirito recently
provided some information about DiSpirito's, owned by two brothers.
Aniello "Neal" DiSpirito
and his brother, Pasquale DiSpirito, bought the property from Armour
Beef Company in 1917. Aniello/Neal married Fanny and they had 3 sons:
Augustine
(Gus), Vincent (Vince), and Pasquale (Packy), who is in his early 90s
and lives in
New Jersey.See the Grocery Stores page for a note about Vince DiSpirito's store. (1939 flour ad from Ed Merrick)
There
was a fire
at DiSpirito's in 1931 (article at left from Charlie Stumpf). The
business
recovered, though, and continued
for many years. The building stood empty for years afterward and
was torn down a few years ago. As shown above, there was a faded ad for
Ceresota Flour still visible on the side, and as shown in the close-up
at right you could barely see the rusted remains of their slogan,
"Prize
Bread Flour of the World," which had been painted just as it's shown in
this copy of their ad. Ed Merrick shares this longer article about the 1931 fire:
From Ed Merrick: Pasquale "Packy" and Angelo DiSpirito lived with their mother, Fanny, in a big white house with a large porch just south of our place at 342 Washington." [Corrected by DiSpirito grandson Neil Fisch, who writes that Fanny was Aniello's wife, and that the family lived at 326 Washington St.; also corrected by Jim DiSpirito who says that there was no Angelo in that generation, so it would have been Packy and either Vince or Gus living with Fanny at the time Ed remembers. Gus was Jim's father.]
Ed continues: There was an empty lot next door, which they owned. Fanny was the scourge of our alley baseball games because she wouldn't allow us to come in her yard to retrieve baseballs that were hit there. [Now this is very funny: Jim DiSpirito wrote: What it says about Fanny, my grandmother is true, regarding the balls. After she died Packy and me found two buckets full in her basement.] )
From Pat Ferko Miller: DiSpirito Feed and Grocery store. Washington Street at the railroad tracks. Train used to unload flour bags etc. at the side door. I think the building still stands or a part of it may still be there. Catty corner from that facility (across the tracks) was a lumber yard. I believe that it closed in the 50s.) [building torn down after Pat wrote that.]
From Sam Drozic: It was down Washington St. by the RR tracks on the side of the street where Turri's Bar was. It was the last bldg. before the old train station. There was a gray, wooden stairway that took you to the actual store part which was on the second story. The first story, I believe, was used for loading and unloading grain and supplies by the tracks. When you walked in, you had to go towards the rear of the store and to the left side to pay at the register. It had a little of everything from hardware to candy.)
An ad from 1924 reads: DiSpirito Bros. Freeland. Dealers in flour, feed, hay, straw, grain. (Ed Merrick: Catholic Reference Book and Parish Register, circa 1924)
John Pingar and Son -
Washington Street, opposite L.V.R.R. depot - Dealers in flour, feed,
hay and grain.Flour, grain and feed mills and stores listed in directories and maps, 1900-1940
1900 Sanborn Fire Insurance Co. map
B. F. Davis, Flour Mill
1900-1901 city directory
Flour and feed mills and stores in business listings:
Davis, B. F., flour, feed, grain, straw, etc., Freeland
1900-1901 city directory
Flour and feed mills and stores in business listings:
Shambora, George J., grocer, hay, feed and grain, Centre
1905 Sanborn Fire Insurance Co. map
B. F. Davis, Flour Mill
1912 Sanborn Fire Insurance Co. map
B. F. Davis, Steam Mill (Flour Mill - CT)
1912 telephone directory
Davis B F, Flour & Feed – Birkbeck
1917 telephone directory
Flour and feed mills and stores in general listings:
Davis, B. F., flour & feed - 440 Birkbeck [440 Johnson at Birkbeck - CT]
Dispirito Bros., flour & feed - 202 Washington
1921-22 city directory
Flour and feed mills and stores in business listings:
Davis, B. F. & Son, flour, feed, grain, hay, straw, Johnson cor Birkbeck
Dispirito Bros., flour, feed and grain, 202 Washington
1928-29 city directory
Flour and feed mills and stores in business listings:
Davis, B. F. & Son, flour, sugar, salt, feed, hay, grain, 440 Johnson at Birkbeck
DiSpirito Bros., flour and feed (retail), 202 Washington
1940 city directory
Flour and feed mills and stores in business listings:
Davis, B. F. & Son, flour and feed, 440 Johnson
DiSpirito Bros., flour and feed, 202 Washington