By Herbert Weber Yeagley
As it looks today, the Penryn General Store and post office still serves the community of Penryn and surrounding areas just as it did fifty years ago. And though the building is about the same as it was then, the customers and the merchandise have changed greatly over the years.
Lititz Record-Express, Thursday, July 17, 1975.
Former Boyer Hotel & Penryn Weber House
I am writing in the first person because I spent so much of my youth in Penryn and was born in the building shown above.
From my research, I believe that a building existed on the site before 1740 because records show that taxes were paid that year. It was one of two hotels built when the Newport Rd., which runs in front of the hotel, was heavily used by iron workers in the 1700's and early 1800's. Raw materials were hauled to iron works like Cornwall and Mt. Hope, located along South Mountain and finished products were shipped to eastern cities.
An 1875 atlas of Lancaster Co. PA shows the building as the Boyer Hotel. At this time no attempt has been made to learn who sold the land to Boyer.
In the basement of the store section there is a date of 1876 carved. The store section was added with a general store and post office by H. H. Whitmeyer FRH 2 about that time. He became the first postmaster of Penryn, 9/28/1891 and continued until 4/6/1894.
My grandfather, J. T. Weber, bought the building 4/1/1911* but I believe that he occupied the premises beginning in 1906 after my grandmother, Olivia, became the postmaster.
About 1924 or 1925 the east end of the house was converted into a separate apartment by remodeling a monstrous kitchen and laundry area into a modern kitchen, a cistern pump area, and a master bedroom on the second floor. It is believed that indoor plumbing was added also. A doorway between the apartment and the main part of the house allowed free passage on both levels.
A few years later a long porch extending across all of the front, except the store, was replaced by stoops. Plumbing was added to the rest of the house at that time.
About this time my parents were operating the store for my grandfather and I have very fond memories of visiting my grandparents on the apartment side of the building and exploring parts of the house. In the attic were, as usual, antiques, but of much more importance were shelves of cut up apples drying to "apple schnitz" and trays of corn cut off the cob drying for later use in cooking. There was a cool cistern cellar and on the steps were crocks of shredded cabbage fermenting on its way to become sauerkraut. Along an earthen ledge were barrels of grape, dandelion, elderberry and sour cherry wine fermenting or sealed and stored. Shelves on the wall were loaded with canned green beans, red beets, tomatoes, and chow-chow. The aroma was tantalizing.
A room adjacent to the store area was used as a shoe store and later an office. The wall separating the store and room was removed about 1966 and a mural was found beneath several layers of wallpaper. It is presumed that a "nonpaying boarder" painted the mural in exchange for room accommodations.
In the early 1920's behind the building was a medium size barn and fire wagon house. The barn had a drive-up ramp to the loft floor where hay for horses and green tobacco plants for drying were unloaded. On the first floor were a small tobacco packing operation, horse stall, and two bays for carriages or autos. The firehouse protected a horse drawn fire wagon equipped with a hand-operated pumper.
According to Jack Uibel postmasters who have served at this location include:
H. H. Whitmeyer 09/28/1891 John T. Weber 03/09/1930 Thomas Keath 04/16/1894 Robert. Biemesderfer 03/24/1930 H. H. Whitmeyer 05/03/1898 Ruth Malschnee 11/17/1936 Sadie G. Adair 02/28/1905 J. Uibel 12/30/1966 Olivia J. Weber 09/23/1905 Mary Vicari 10/10/1993
The structure is now owned by Mr. Jack Uibel and Family.
* Note: Lancaster Co. PA Courthouse, Deed Book K, Vol. 20, Pages 532-533
Penryn Post Office and Weber's Store as it looked around the turn-of-the-century. Taken shortly after the store was purchased in 1905 by Ruth Malschnee's father, the scene is Penryn; the two people on the porch are Weber and Ruth's older sister. If you look hard, you can see the knife sharpener wheel on the porch and the couple in the buggy at the left of the picture.
Lititz Record-Express, Thursday, July 17, 1975.
( Taken from an original Post Card printed and sold by Weber C. 1905.)
Penryn Post Office and Weber's Store
One activity that reminds us of the popularity and thoughtfulness of the Webers is the "water pump" in front of the store and residence. Many families used only cistern rain water for sanitary, cooking and misc. needs. They relied on the well in front of the general store for potable water. But anyone close by the pump could fill the cup, always available and hanging on the pump, and get a fresh drink of cool well water. I doubt that there was a citizen of Penryn during the early nineteen hundreds who did not take advantage of that treat.
FRH 1 Used by permission. From "Biemesderfer, Diehms and Webers" by Herbert Weber Yeagley, et. al.
FRH 2 Original and correct family name is WITMEYER.
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Page First Published: 02-Aug-2002 08:30 PM - Last Update: 11-May-2006 06:39 PM
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