Peterson’s Store

After their first store burned John Peterson and his son Fred purchased the old Clermont Hotel and converted it to a General Store. Here are two pictures of Fred.

The next photo is of Wendell Anderson on the left and Fred is in the middle.  The other person is a friend.

Here is a Photo of Peterson's Store.

Butt’s Store

William E Butts and his wife Elizabeth moved to Smethport from Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania in 1875. At first he was employed as station agent for the Pennsy Railroad. It is believed that M. Butts started the Clermont Water Company to provide running water for Clermont. He opened the store pictured here and was soon appointed Postmaster so he located the Post Office in his store. Bill and his wife had four children: Lula, William Jr., Kitty and Fred.

Anderson ’s Store

Andy Anderson had a small farm with an ice pond located across from the George Blauser residence. He bought the former Butt's store and operated it for many years. His daughter Alva worked in the store also. The upstairs in the store housed different families at various times. The Merle Bush Family lived there at one time. Andy used ice from his pond to supply his cooler for meats in his store.

Frank Rizzo’s Store

When the Gumboot Mines were shut down, Frank Rizzo opened a small grocery store that featured Italian food because in those days there were quite a few Italian families in Clermont. Frank was even able to sell Italian bread that was provided by Frank Caterina who had a brick oven on his farm where he baked bread. Wooden boxes that contained 25 pounds of pasta products were evident in the store.

Claypool’s Store

In the early 1950’s Albert and Minnie Claypool opened a small Grocery store across from the Anderson farm barn.

 They also had gas pumps and sold gasoline. Here is a photo of the store.

In 1955 Randy Manning and I built an addition to the store to serve as a residence for the Claypools.  Here is a Photo of the house with the addition.

This place was later purchased by Tom and Dolly Walker. Dolly continued to sell groceries in the store for a few years.

Huck’s Store

Floyd Anderson had a small store across from the Anderson family home. It was a small trailer converted into a small store. The children always enjoyed his selection of penny candies.