THERE WERE SEVERAL responses to the February picture from the past, which was the Fairview Grocery and Service Station.

The store was at the corner of East U.S. Highway 101 and Lake Farm Road. It is not known just when the store came into existence, but research says sometime in the late 1930s.

The photo was taken in the 1940s and shared by Bill Payne.

Payne said his father had the store in the late 1930s, but the obituary in the 1971 Port Angeles Evening News says Payne Sr. became owner of the Fairview Store in 1946 and operated it until he retired in 1950.

The “P” for Payne shows on the side of the building. Payne said he hopes someone will recognize the girl.

Charles Light said the girl in the photo was his aunt, Donna Wieland.

She was born in 1935 and was his mother’s younger sister.

The photo actually belonged to Light, and he gave it to Payne’s nephew, who in turn passed it along to Bill Payne.

According to Light, his grandmother Mida Wieland was married to Payne Sr. for a time.

Light was quite surprised to see the photo in the newspaper.

His aunt Donna went on to become Sequim Irrigation royalty and lived with a family in Sequim. The black kitty was her favorite pet.

Memories shared

Virginia Lamon Gort Musser wrote: “I remember this building well. It was east of Port Angeles on the highway at Lake Farm Road. It was owned by Mac and Jean [I don’t remember their last name]. They also lived in the building with their three children.

“I worked there in the 1950s from the time I was 14 until I was 16 years old.

“I was hired for 50 cents an hour. It was my job to wait on customers, pump gas, sweep and dust, and keep the shelves stocked. That is, everything but the beer in the cooler. I wasn’t old enough to handle the alcohol and I couldn’t sell it either.

“We couldn’t sell beer on Sundays, so Mac and Jean would leave me in charge.

“Otherwise they would never be able to get away. I saved my money and bought myself a watch and an electric blanket.

“Thanks for the memories.”

Richard Anderson said: “I remember this picture. It brings fond memories of my childhood when I lived at the Fairview Grocery at the corner of Highway 101 and Lake Farm Road.

“In the ’50s and early ’60s, my parents, Richard and Norma Anderson, owned the store at which I had many an adventure.

“I remember the community at that time. People would stop for fuel or groceries, and Mom or Dad would ask, ‘How about a cup of coffee?’ and since our residence was connected to the back of the store, they could come right in through the store and sit and visit.

“I recall the loggers stopping to make purchases. My mother had cut-up cardboard boxes to fit their cork boots so the floors wouldn’t get ruined.

“I remember a man named Dalmain Jacobs. A very nice fellow, he would give me a nickel or two to carry his groceries to his car.

“I helped my dad by filling the glass oil jugs to set out for customers to buy and put in their cars and trucks.

“There were many a late night when someone would knock on the door either broke down, out of gas, flat tire or in the ditch.

“Dad was always willing to help someone out. Those days are gone now.

“One time, a man wrecked his BMW motorcycle. I remember to this day, he worked for Dad and stayed in the cabin at the back of the property to pay his repair bill.

“Mr. Ted Hermann used to bring eggs for my mom to sell in the store. I always loved it when he came.”

“He was a great guy, very friendly,” Anderson continued.

“I could go on with many more memories like washing State Patrol cars and the Wonder Bread trucks to earn money.

“My dad serviced a lot of these vehicles, so I would tell the driver they needed washing and get myself some work.

“There was the time when Harley Chase, a hog farmer who lived at the end of Lake Farm Road, came for a bottle of wine and backed his 2-ton flatbed truck into our septic tank. Boy, was that funny.

“Dad didn’t think so at the time but later chuckled about it.

“I remember also, Mrs. Dilling, she would call my Mom on a Sunday to set out a special order.

“Oh, one last thing. When you drive by in the summer, you may see orange California poppies blooming where the store had been.

“Well, you can blame that on me.”

The Andersons sold the store to William and Helen McGoff in 1967. The last record of the store is about 1977 with the McGoffs as owners.

Jan Rowland DeScala remembered the Fairview Grocery and had lots of memories to share.

She said, “My grandmother, Isabel Severse, lived up Bagley Creek Road and my sisters, cousins and neighbor kids would enjoy many a walk to the store to buy penny candy and popsicles.

“The time frame was the 1950s and ’60s, so the highway was just one lane going each way, and Bagley Creek Road was not too traveled.

“We never worried about it being dangerous to walk there and always made an adventure out of it.

“Thank you so much for jogging my memory … definitely a wonderful time in my childhood.”

Jan Yoder wrote about the Fairview store.

It shut down when the four-lane road was built in 1978.

Yoder lived about a quarter-mile away and remembered going there to get a loaf of bread for his mom and fishing gear to fish in Bagley Creek.

He couldn’t remember the names of all the owners, but the last lady who lived there told him she bought a package of steaks at Safeway and had one that night and saved the other for a week.

She then scraped the green off and had a tasty tender steak for dinner.

Yoder’s wife also remembered going there to buy bread.

Dick Helpenstell commented that the State Patrol vehicles fueled up at the station before they got their own fuel tanks.

Many people, including Margaret Levitan, Ed Grier, Glorene Hanson, Rick Melvin, Daryl and Nancy Raines, and Ricci Molenkamp, guessed it was R Corner Store and Station.

Ted Cooper thought it was the station at the corner of Deer Park Road and Highway 101.

There were many little stations along Highway 101, and many of them looked very much alike, so it is not surprising that many would guess wrong.

These little stations played an important part in the growth of the county.

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Alice Alexander is a Clallam County historian, author, and a descendent of an Elwha Valley pioneer family. She is a recipient of a 2014 Clallam County Heritage Awards. She can be reached at bretches1942@gmail.com.

Alice’s Clallam history column appears the first Sunday of every month, alternating with Linnea Patrick’s Jefferson County history column on the third Sunday of the month.

The gas station at the Fairway Grocery and Service Station on Lake Farm Road and East U.S. Highway 101 is shown in the 1940s. (Bill Payne)