Store History

There has been a store in this building since the 1850s, when the Dwinells operated the store and lived upstairs.

Across the street was the Tin Shop. In 1852 Ira Dwinell sold the building to Henry Pierce of New Bedford, Massachusetts. Pierce sold it to Alonzo Pierce in 1860, and Albert Dwinell purchased it four years later. Albert sold it to his son Clarence Dwinell in 1889.

The addition on the front was once home to a milliner and later a town library. Initially, the Good Templars’ Lodge Hall was on the second floor with the horse sheds located on the first floor. There were apartments in the upstairs rooms, as well. During the early 1900s, Mrs. Hammond and her daughter, Kate, lived in the apartment. In 1910, Clarence Dwinell sold it to Dell B. Dwinell, who ran the store for approximately three years. Dwinell sold it to Austin and Alta Cove in 1913. Called the Coates & Cove store during the early twentieth century, Warren J. Coates operated the store with his father-in-law, Austin Cove. Herbert and Elise Wallace purchased it in 1939, and they expanded the scope of the operations by adding an automobile garage and gas station. Orrin and Charlotte Jackman bought it in 1949. In 1969 the store was purchased by Willie and Wilma Sayers who ran the store for almost 17 years. They sold it to John and Sharon Gall in 1986. In 1998 The Galls sold the building and store to the Chalice Community Venture who owned it until 2005 when they sold it to Edward Walbridge. In 2008 Mr Walbridge sold the store business to LaPan Enterprises LLC. LaPan Enterprises operated the store until December 2019, at which time the store closed. East Calais Community Trust purchased the building in June 2020 for the purpose of reopening a store on the premises.

You can read more about the store’s history in “A Walk through the Village of East Calais, Vermont in the late Nineteenth Century” by Ida Clee Bemis, edited with commentary by Sylvia B. Larson (Vermont History 74 [Summer/Fall 2006]: 156–175; © 2006 by the Vermont Historical Society), or “A Late Nineteenth Century Childhood in East Calais: Recollections of Ida Clee Bemis” transcribed by Judith M. Adams (Vermont History 73 [Summer/Fall 2005]: 152–159; © 2005 by the Vermont Historical Society). Additional history of the building as recorded in Weston Cate Jr's Forever Calais and by the Calais Historical Society was used for the application to have East Calais listed as a Historic District.  East Calais attained its Historic District status and the East Calais General Store building was listed in the National Register of Historic Places as a contributing resource (#24) to the Historic District in September 2020.