July 25, 2010

B.E.S.T. announces "M Trussell" General Store, Warner (Davisville), New Hampshire. The first store in Davisville was located across the river from the present building. It was moved in 1823 by Aquila Davis and attached to his brick home on the hill for use as a shed. Lucretia Davis wrote in her memoirs that a second store was built on the site of the current Country Corner Store and was occupied by a Mr. Duby. It was a story and a half construction and had an outside stairway on the north which led up to a room where Seth Low had his cobbler shop.

Nathaniel Davis (lived in the old tavern) probably owned the shop and it was operated either by a member of the family or leased out.

In 1892 Henry C. Davis sold the store to his clerk, Moses Trussell who operated the store for many years. Trussell enlarged the building by adding another story and a wrap around porch and outside stairs. Trussell was also postmaster until 1908 when the branch was closed.

In 1919 the stock and store were sold to the Webber family for $4,000. Oakman Webber would manage the store while Augusta (his second wife) took in summer boarders during their tenure. Their home could accommodate fifty guests while the overflow would sleep in bedrooms at the store. The Webbers would sell the business in 1941. Since then the store has passed through a succession of owners.

The kit measures 3-3/4" long by 8" wide.

B.E.S.T. also announces the "Colchester Reef" Light House, Lake Champlain, Vermont. The Colchester Reef Light in Vermont was a lighthouse off Colchester Point (northwest of Burlington, Vermont) in Lake Champlain. In 1869 the United States Lighthouse Service commissioned the building of the Colchester Reef Lighthouse on Lake Champlain to protect ships from the "Middle Bunch Reef," comprising the Colchester Reef, the Colchester Shoals, and the Hogback Reef.

The lighthouse served as both the home and work place of eleven successive keepers and their families. The first floor was divided into a living room and kitchen and the second floor into four bedrooms. Coal stoves provided heat while large pumps retrieved water from the lake.

The lighthouse was decommissioned in 1933. Sold for $50 for scrap lumber in 1952, then for $1300 for substitute building materials and moved in 1956 to the Shelburne Museum in Shelburne, Vermont. Over time the parts were cataloged and reassembled and eventually open to the public in 2006.

The kit measures 4-7/8" long by 5-1/2" wide.

Their third announcement for today is the Car Repair Shop, Lincoln, New Hampshire. The East Branch & Lincoln Railroad, built by James E. Henry, was the largest logging railroad in New England, covering about 72 miles, sidings included. And the railroad lasted far longer than any other logging line in the region. Construction began in 1894 and continued sporadically over a number of years. The last train chugged out of the Lincoln woods in 1948, fifty-four years later. Lincoln village was the site of a large sawmill and later a pulp mill and a paper mill built by James E. Henry. Henry's efforts created the large municipality of Lincoln, NH , arising from a wilderness home site in the 1890s. This kit represents the car shop for the East Branch & Lincoln Railroad.

The kit measures 8-1/4" long by 2-7/8" wide.