Allebach General Store
Oswin S Allebach, a cousin of my Grandfather Allebach, purchased the store that was on the corner of Valley Forge Road and Skippack Pike in 1911 from Harry Nace. My parents bought it in 1927. So for fifty-six years, the Allebach family served the community with the store and post office. From 1911 to 1967, it was called “Allebach’s Store”.
A “General Store” was expected to have everything and if it wasn’t on hand, you were expected to get it for the customer. Tires and tubes along with barrels of loose dark and light molasses, linseed, oil, turpentine and anti-freeze were in the basement. The customer would bring their own container for you to fill for them. We cut to size, window glass, wire screening for the windows, and chicken wire for the chicken house. There were all types of feed in the barn as well as cattle salt, oyster shell and grit for the chickens All kind of fence wire and roofing materials were also in part of the barn. By the late 40’s feeds were shipped in fancy material bags. Many wives now accompanied their husbands when feed was purchased. This allowed the wives to pick out the pattern they wanted or to match some they already had at home. These materials were used for many types of sewing by the women. A man’s shirt or women’s blouse or skirt was a common piece of apparel. The store had three floors, all full of most anything you could imagine. A sausage stuffer or plug tobacco cutter, horse collars, dishes and cooking utensils could be found on the second floor along with garden tools and seeds for garden planting, dry groceries like cereal, tea, coffee and pudding mixes. There were two small rooms to the right of the stairs where shoes for the family were displayed with the boot and rubbers. On the third floor we kept stove pipe and seasonal items that were left from Christmas, Halloween, Easter and canning needs of jars and preserving boxes for fruit and vegetables.
These are memories shared by Wilson Allebach. Read more on our site tab under the Local History tab, then Reminiscences.
