I remember back to 1950 when I used to be down at the store for an hour or so in the evening when neighbours used to sit and gossip on the seven foot long bench behind the wood stove. In 195l, when I started school and came home for dinner, I would usually get a piece of candy or small ice cream for the walk back to school.
-- Ed Albright (son of Ken Albright, storekeeper from l944-l958)

The one and one-half story store building with a low pitched roof had a rough board platform protected by a veranda roof extending across the front where the customers would gather. There are large wooden shuttered windows containing nine small panes of glass each on both sides of the central door and on either end of the building. The exterior is now finished with white wooden clapboards and green trim.

In the early 1900's "The Store" was a typical little country store. It had one room on the ground floor with counters along one side and end. Shelves were on the walls behind the counters. On the counters were glass cases containing penny candies and other assorted goods. To the left of the door was the post office. This was a nicely constructed cabinet of compartments open in the back with doors in front hinged at the top. People's names were attached to the top of the doors. The cabinet contained the mail of the McKeens Corner and Lower Keswick Ridge families.

The store was the focal point of our community. It met so many needs: post office, farm supplies, groceries, gifts and above all, a place to socialize.
-- Jessica Coburn Robinson

In winter an upright stove in the middle of the ground floor served to warm the store -- and the regulars who gathered to talk and smoke around it. The upstairs was sometimes used at Christmas time for Christmas trimmings and toys. On the back of the store was a lean-to shed. Here feed, kerosene, molasses, flour and sugar were stored. This has been replaced by a state-of-the-art artefact storage area, designed to resemble the original shed.

My father walked to the store in the evening to chew the fat with neighbours. As young children we were given lists and carried home items such as old cheddar cheese wedges cut from a large round of cheese, stone jugs of molasses filled from a hogshead and metal containers of kerosene for our oil lamps. The smell of kerosene and molasses in the back of the store remains with me..
-- Jessica Coburn Robinson

The Buildings and Facilities Committee, for many years headed by Ralph Stevenson, and currently chaired by Dan Nicholson, has been engaged in renovation and restoration.