We stopped at Dogtown Books on Main Street recently to drop off a new GMG sticker and, of course, I had to take a peek at what was being offered in the Local History section. Lucas very nicely showed me 2 large bound volumes of the Gloucester Daily Times, each covering 3 months of 1956. I immediately snatched them up and dragged them home (they are big and bulky). I am including a shot of me hauling my bounty back to the car.
So we got them home and started going through them page by page, day by day. This story came to our attention right away. The Grand Opening of the Yankee General Store at 279 East Main Street. This store ran from 1956-1974 and even made note in the Boston Globe of its penny candy availability in a Feb 22 1960 column, a portion of which you see here. Some of you surely have memories of this place! Share them in the comments for all to enjoy.
Today, the store front looks nearly the same though it currently houses a medical practice. More stories from 1956 Gloucester forthcoming……
Good Morning Gloucester 
We lived almost next door to the Yankee General Store, at 269 East Main. In between was the small grocery store, run, when I was a kid, by Ozzie Tarr. It then became the Railroad Avenue Market, run by the Murphy brothers, Tom and Andrew. I remember Mr. Huke, who owned the General Store, a tall, rather quiet gentleman. I was a little too old for the penny candy by 1956, but before Mr. Huke, Ozzie sold penny candy–and gum!
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Oh my gosh!!!! This is love!!
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Hello – I’m so happy to read your blog post on The Yankee General Store. In 1966, I went to the store with my mother, and met Mr. Huke. He took us to a shed (across the street, I think) that was filled with stacks of paintings and unframed canvases by the artist Walter Lofthouse Dean. Over several visits, my mother chose 5 paintings, and my grandmother bought two more. Mr. Huke measured the canvases and charged my mother by the size – the prices ranged from $10 to $25. All the paintings that my mom chose were unframed, so Mr. Huke recommended that we take them to Mr. Vincent Ferrini who owned a frame shop, but who was better known as the poet of Gloucester. I love the three Walter L. Dean paintings that I have in my home now, and the story of their purchase is a big part how unique they are. I would be grateful for any more information you and your readers can give me about the store, Mr. Huke, buying paintings from him, or about Walter L. Dean. Thank you!
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Ok, so this comment is coming 3.5 years after the original post, but I was feeling nostalgic and happened to google the Yankee General Store today. The nostalgia was triggered by the house at 281 E. Main street being on the market: the Hukes lived in that house right next door to the store.
My parents were friends with the Hukes, and I spent a lot of time at their house when I was growing up (I was born in 1968 and my family lived on the back shore at that point). My mother was a major crafter, and in 1967, Bill Huke commissioned her to make some Christmas decorations for the store. She created a 3 foot high angel – paper mache but with a linen tablecloth instead of paper, sprayed with gold paint and holding a scroll of Christmas carols. That was featured in the front window at least one Xmas season before it came home and became part of my own family’s holiday decorations. I do have a picture of it in the store, but I don’t think I can add it here (plus, it doesn’t really show much of the rest of the store anyway).
Also, after Bill died in 1974 and the store was closed, we took temporary possession of the nickelodeon that had been in the store. That thing was so cool – we had it in our basement for a while and I was always begging my dad to make it play it for me. It wasn’t there all that long, so I assume it was sold (I was only 5 at the time, so…I just remember it being there and then it was gone).
The nickelodeon was like this, but far less ornate, and also, I seem to remember you had to place the discs manually…https://www.renaissanceantiques.com/product/regina-20-3-4-disc-automatic-changer-style-37/
Unfortunately, being so young, I don’t have any actual real memories of the store itself – it’s likely that I was usually over in the house next door when visiting – they probably didn’t want a rambunctious little kid running through the aisles!
Oh also, I wonder if the “shed” mentioned in the previous post was the cottage at 281R E. Main – later in the 70s, Betty Huke used to rent it out during the summer. Seems likely that it could have been used for storage in the Yankee Store days. Or maybe it was initially just a shed that was converted later into a livable space. (in the 70s, a woman named Lucy from Texas rented it every summer that I remember – but that’s pretty much all I remember. Lucy from Texas. It’s possible she was a teacher and spent the summer in Gloucester doing art/painting…?)
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Happened upon this article in researching my family home until 1977. The Yankee General Store was an amazing place to live if you were a kid in the 1970’s as was the entire Rocky Neck area. My parents stocked the candy faithfully for sale but sent us to Bertha’s to give them a much needed break!
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