Martinsburg Musings from the 1950s

My family moved to Martinsburg in August of 1950. My dad, who was a pharmacist, purchased the local drugstore from the family of Dr. C. N. Johnson, who had recently passed away. Martinsburg has changed in many ways since that time. Perhaps the biggest difference is that Martinsburg, like many small towns all across America, was at that time a complete and thriving economic unit; meaning that you could obtain most of what you needed for daily life right there if you lived in town or nearby.

For example, Martinsburg had within its borough limits, among other things, three grocery stores, three new car dealerships, several farm implements dealers, five gasoline service stations, a furniture and appliance store (still there!), two independent banks, a hotel, several restaurants, a funeral parlor (also still there), three barbershops, at least three beauty shops, two general stores, two clothing stores, a soda bottling plant, a shoe repair shop and several insurance agencies, as well as three medical doctors, two dentists and an attorney at law, not to mention several locally based building contractors, plumbers and electricians. I’m certain that I’ve missed a few along the way. For entertainment, there was a movie theater, a billiards parlor, in addition to the Memorial park which offered roller skating, bowling alleys and numerous other activities indoor and out.

I can name some of those merchants from memory: At the intersection of East Allegheny Street and South Market Street stood a large brick building, recently taken down, which housed several businesses. At the corner was the A&P grocery store. For those who don’t recognize the name, A&P was the trade name of the Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, which, at the time, was the largest grocery chain in the United States. The store manager was Walter Houck, a genial man who loved his work. These were the days before self-serve supermarkets, so that when you walked in, you went directly to the counter and told the clerk what you wanted; then, item by item, he or she would retrieve them. It was a small space—goods were stacked on shelves that extended to the ceiling. The higher items were pulled down with poles or long hooks and caught by the clerk as they fell. Purchases were tallied at the counter and put in paper bags or, in some cases, wrapped in heavy Kraft paper and tied with string.

Next to the A&P, moving up the street, was a business that, for the life of me, I can’t recall. The last business in that large building was a bank, the Morrison’s Cove Bank of Martinsburg. I have a vague recollection of the interior (perhaps aided by my imagination.) The teller worked behind a cage of iron bars, wearing a green eye-shade and sleeve garters. An out of town customer remarked that it looked like the kind of bank Jesse James would rob. The bank was later acquired by the Altoona Trust Company and moved across the street to a building which now houses the Hometown Bank. I became familiar with the old bank location many years later: I had a law office there for 28 years. My desk was at the former location of the bank vault.

The next building, which still stands and houses the Pizza Star Restaurant, had a pool hall on the first floor—Campbell’s Billiards. The second floor was the office of Dr. Harry E. Henry, one of two dentists in town. Dr. Henry was fond of Cuckoo clocks, which lined the stairs to his office and the walls of his waiting room. It was something to be there when they let loose on the hour!

After that was the Teeter’s Hotel and Restaurant building which was lost in a fire a few years back. The ground level area housed Lightner’s Clothing Store. Frank and Mamie Teeter operated the hotel and restaurant which was famous for its signature dish: chicken and waffles. Frank Teeter was a school teacher, but in his spare time was the fire chief and held numerous civic offices in the borough. Mamie Teeter was a likable but no nonsense individual who ran the restaurant and co-managed the hotel. If Martinsburg had a First Couple, it would be Frank and Mamie Teeter.

My dad’s drugstore was in the next building. There had been a pharmacy there since 1872 when J.C. Sanders moved his business to that location. Around the turn of that century he sold it to Dr. C.N. Johnson who operated the drugstore until his death in the late 1940s. Dr. Johnson was one of the moving forces behind creating the Memorial Park. When my dad took over, the interior had changed very little since the 1870s. I recall him stating that they removed seventeen truckloads of patent medicines, bottles and apothecary jars (all of which would be worth a fortune now) when he moved in.

The drugstore, like most in the 1950s, sold almost everything. As you walked in the front entrance, to the left was a large magazine rack, well stocked with all sorts of magazines, newspapers and, especially, comic books. On the right was the soda fountain. Farther on, to the left was a cigar display case with a built-in humidor with cigarettes on racks above. After that was a cosmetics counter, greeting card rack and items such as cameras, alarm clocks, you name it, then came aisles of over the counter medicines and health items. The pharmacy was at the rear of the store. I can still recall the particular medicinal smell from all of the bottles of pills that lined the shelves.

Next, in the same building, was the First National Bank of Martinsburg which later was acquired by Hollidaysburg Trust Company and, in the 1970s, moved to its current location as First National Bank on West Allegheny Street.

The building now is home to Mamie’s Café, operated fittingly by Karen Wyland, the great-granddaughter of Frank and Mamie Teeter.

After that was Kreider’s Atlantic service station, which, like most gasoline stations offered full service for motor vehicles.

Next was the office of Dr. John S. Bonebreak, who had been a practicing physician in Martinsburg since the 1890s and had, by 1953, delivered over 3,000 babies in the Cove area. Sometime later in that decade a parade was held in which many of those children marched in his honor.

Tom Reese grew up in Martinsburg, graduating in the last class of Morrison Cove High School. He is a retired attorney, having maintained an office in Martinsburg for 32 of his 44 years in practice. Reese put together some writings about growing up in Martinsburg in the 1950s and offered them to the Herald.