Fennimore Store
Main, Lombard, and Front Sts., Leipsic, DEThe Fennimore Store is the embodiment of the commercial enterprise of Leipsic and Little Creek's nineteenth century merchants. John Fennimore, Sr., bought and sold grain, coal, lime, fertilizers and general produce. He operated a steamboat running between Leipsic and Philadelphia in order to promote his own business and the general trade of the community. According to Beer's Atlas (1868) the store carried a full line of dry goods, groceries, hardware, tinware, clothing and other items.
In 1887 there were approximately four hundred residents in the village and about sixty working farms in close proximity to the town. As noted at the time, "the domestic trade of the town was quite large and profitable business was done in the shipping of marsh hay, grain and oysters." In addition to Fennimore's store the town also possessed a druggist, milliner, butcher shoemaker, shipbuilder, blacksmith, wheelwrights and assorted other tradesmen. In its heyday oyster schooners anchored across the street from Fennimore's store and the location served as a community focal point for the exchange of goods, news and local gossip. As one elderly resident recalls, "When I was about eight, I remember coming home from school and seeing farm wagons lining both sides of Front and Main Streets for several blocks. They were filled with tomatoes, hay, grain, and other produce to be shipped to market." The store additionally served as a ship's chandlery to the extent that it outfitted the vessels with provisions for their week long dredging voyages.
The business has been a general store, grocery and gas station, muskrat skinner's store and antique shop at various periods in its long service to the community of Leipsic. Because of its location, architectural elements and its role in the exchange of goods, services and social contacts, the J.W. Fennimore Store has always occupied a significant position in the village landscape.
Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.