Two Drugstores on New Road Hill, Dennysville, Maine
Rebecca W. Hobart writes in "Dennysville 1786-1986 . . . and Edmunds, too!" (p. 56): "The message on a postcard, which has a picture of the two structures at the foot of New Road Hill (the one leading up to the meetinghouse), identified one of them as George Kilby's drug store. In 1897 George Harmon and his brother, Dr. A.R. Harmon came to Dennysville and continued the druggist's business which had been so long conducted by George Kilby, who had died March 30, 1896. When the Harmons removed to Machias in 1900, Frank West bought out the business and rented the other store building, which belonged to Gardners, first occupying it on February 23. After F.S. West's death in 1910, the building was remodeled for a dwelling. In more recent years it was used by the Fire Department." She adds that when the Dennys River Volunteer Fire Department was organized in 1949, a Diamond T pumper Truck, with hose and accessories, was purchased for $1,500. Gardner's old grain shed, on the bank of the Dennys River, directly across the road from the remaining drug store, served as the Fire Station until 1950, when the Department moved into the old drug store at the foot of School (or New Road) Hill. By the 1960's it became apparent that a more suitable location was needed. When Maxwell Gardner donated a plot of land on King Street in 1962, a new Fire Station was built, and is there to this day.
