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Stores And Taverns
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 Charles Campbell And Dr. Ralph Goss At The Corner Store About 1930
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Two of the town's favorite
persons of the time are shown here at Campbell's Corner store.
Dr. Goss was greatly respected and liked, and many persons still
living have fond memories of both men. (Gasoline pumps show
that automobiles had begun to replace the horses and buggies shown
elsewhere in the pictures of Purgatory Village and Bachelder's
Crossing.) source: Litchfield Yesterdays |
| In 1851 Zachariah
Smith, grandson of one of the original settlers, sold 43 acres of
land at Litchfield Corner to his adopted son Dexter W. Smith for
$300. Dexter built the house still standing there and he and
his wife Margaret ran a "public house" along with a store. The
Augusta-Portland stage stopped there providing the house with many
lodgers. Dexter also made a patent medicine, a "cure-all."
Some of the bottles are still found in Hallowell antique shops. Dexter's daughter Sarah married Dr. Irving Gilbert, and they became the next owners of the house. The doctor, after graduating from the Medical College in Brunswick in 1874, practiced in Massachusetts before returning to Litchfield and opening an office in the house. He was not only well respected as a doctor, but also honored by being elected a trustee of the Academy and later the superintendent of schools. Charles and Hattie Campbell bought the house around 1915. Charlie ran the store at the Corner and made ice-cream in the basement of the house. The ice-cream was so good that people came from miles around for a cone that was always filled to overflowing. Academy students during the 1920's and '30's found Charlie to be a real friend. In 1952 Lewis and Lila Small bought the house. Lewis moved the huge barn that had been built in 1882 over the turnpike to where it is now at Roger MacWhinnie's place. Lewis also added the back apartment. Since then the house has changed hands several times, at times being used as a single-family home and at other times as a three-family dwelling. In over 120 years many people have found the house a pleasant place to be - whether for one night or for many years. source: Litchfield Yesterdays
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 The Dexter Smith "Public House" At The Corner
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