Mail call: A letter about Paules Dairy in Wrightsville
Today’s post, much like yesterday’s, comes from a reader letter, and brings up a business I hadn’t yet heard of!
Ruth (Paules) Benedick of Dover Township wrote about a past business of note in her own family’s history – Paules Dairy in Wrightsville.
Ruth writes, “My father started Paules Dairy and store in Wrightsville, Pa. at 624 Hellam Street which he ran from 1935 to 1961. We lived behind the store that was situated in the front of the house. He built a dairy in the back of the property where we bottled milk under the name Paules Dairy and delivered to Wrightsville, York and in the summer to the cabins at Accomac.”
She continues, “We made our own ice cream and sold the many flavors in our dairy store. We sold sandwiches, sundaes, ice cream cones, banana splits, milkshakes, sodas, candy – all things sold in a dairy store in those days. A one-scoop cone or plate sold for 5 cents, sundaes and milkshakes were 20 and 25 cents each, ice cream sodas 20 cents, banana splits 35 cents, fountain drinks 5 cents a glass. We also made diatetic ice cream for people that could not have the sugar…”
Ruth also says, “Next to the store, our father also opened a food storage locker during the second World War where he rented lockers to customers. This was before everyone had freezers in their homes. Sundays were the busiest as people went for a ride to the river and stopped for ice cream as they traveled the old Route 30 that went through Wrightsville. There were no bypasses in those days.”
She concludes, “There were five children in the family and we all worked along with our parents, in the dairy, on the milk delivery truck and in the dairy store.”
Ruth enclosed the photos you see with today’s post – one of the front of the store, seen below, and the other of the food lockers, at the top of the entry.
I did a little looking online, and it looks like today, the same place is home to Riverside Customs. You can see it below, thanks to Google Maps’ street view! I’m glad to see that beautiful covered porch seems to be intact.
Are there any photos??