There
are many exterior pictures of businesses of Kezar Falls in the collection at
History House. However, the few with
interior views add an interesting dimension and better illustrate what those businesses looked like at that time. Here are two of them.
Ridlon
Brothers Store
According to the 1880 map of Porter this store which is located
at the corner of Bridge Street and River Street in Kezar Falls Village was E.
T. Edgecomb’s dry goods and grain store. Brothers Walter and Benjamin Ridlon bought it
in 1904 and the family continued to run it until 1962. The exterior picture was obviously an early
view of the building. The first
interior view was circa 1930’s and the larger one was taken in the 1950’s. Sometime in the 1950’s a fire destroyed the
second floor but the building was repaired and continued. Today it is occupied by The Village
Laundry.
Myron
Ridlon’s Drugstore
Myron Ridlon built his drug store in 1923 a short
distance beyond the Ridlon Brothers store on Bridge Street. It is still the last building before the
bridge. The pharmacy and ice cream
parlor were on the first floor and there was an apartment upstairs. “Ridlon’s Drugstore” operated until 1966. In 1967 his nephew, Myron Locke re-opened the
building as a variety store and snack bar that operated until 1977. Later it housed a bakery, fabric shop and an
addition was added with large windows overlooking the Ossipee River for a
beauty shop. Today it houses apartments
and the beauty shop, “Riverside Reflections”. The picture below circa 1930’s.
In
this view of the drugstore, the soda fountain is on the left with tables for
ice cream parlor patrons. The pharmacy is along the back and magazines and
comic books were on the rack at the right. Typical drugstore toiletries were to the right beyond the magazine rack. Myron Ridlon is shown here with his clerk, Iva
Cutting. This photograph is circa 1950.
