Hansel and Gretel Store

[Formula]

Who remembers the “fishing” that was happening in the Hansel and Gretel store in Melvin Village back in the early 70’s?

My family had a place at Lanes End. We stayed in both the cottages and the mobile home park (aka trailers).

Lots of fond memories

[WinterHarborGirl]

I remember it very well. We went there all the time as kids...I took my kids there also until it was no longer there... I miss it very much as i would love to take my grandaughter there....Many memories there..The fishing was our favorite thing there...and the candy!!!

[Lakepilot]

I also remember it very well. Although the building is still for sale, I understand it's in very rough shape.

[Jonas Pilot]

... our interest please tell, the rest of the story.

[Formula]

Originally Posted by Jonas Pilot

... our interest please tell, the rest of the story.

I just have great memories of camp fires, lots of kids running around and a weekly trip to the store for candy and fishing for a prize.

It has been a long time that i have visited Lanes End. I do know that the moble home park was removed in the 80's (?) for condos. I think that the brown cottages may still be there on the left as you drive in.

I think I was about 8 years old when we stopped going.

[19MileBaylover]

What a great little shop it was. And we certainly remember the kids "fishing" in their pond, a treat they looked forward to when we rented at Winona Manor. It's been interesting to see it change hands over the years, but it was sad to see it close; sad that we can't take the grandkids there.

[jenfa]

I registered today just so I could reply to this.

We drive by there once and a while and I tell my husband the story of lolipop fences, penny candy and indoor fishing ponds everytime!! Fond memories!

Our family house was on Wawbeek, just across from Abenaki Tower...

[Greene's Basin Girl]

Originally Posted by jenfa

I registered today just so I could reply to this.

We drive by there once and a while and I tell my husband the story of lolipop fences, penny candy and indoor fishing ponds everytime!! Fond memories!

Our family house was on Wawbeek, just across from Abenaki Tower...

Welcome to the Winnipesaukee Forum!!!

[WinterHarborGirl]

Originally Posted by jenfa

I registered today just so I could reply to this.

We drive by there once and a while and I tell my husband the story of lolipop fences, penny candy and indoor fishing ponds everytime!! Fond memories!

Our family house was on Wawbeek, just across from Abenaki Tower...

We loved the Abenaki Tower also. Loved seeing the whole lake from the top...My family had 2 camps on Winter Harbor Way....Wish we still had them....So many wonderful memories there

[jenfa]

Thank you. I have been lurking here a while and thought it was time I logged on and met everyone.

[mowtorman]

I remember the fishing well. We used to go down 109 once a summer to visit friends in Wolfeboro. When we were young we would usually stop at the store. I remember the short plastic poles. I can't remember if it was a magnet that hooked the fish or a loop you hooked through. Maybe a magnet because I think the fish could fall. I think I remember rock candy and soft taffy. Force of habit I look for that building every time I travel down 109, it kind of was an actual candyland oasis! Lots of good memories. At least Kellerhaus hasn't disappeared yet. The candy store at Weirs used to make a lot of it's candy years ago. I remember my favorite was little chocolate babies, now I think they make bears or something way more politically correct.

[steve c]

The line had a plastic hook on it and the fish had a hole...........My brother fell in the pond once

[BaileyBecca]

Yes I remember as a kid boating across from Tanglewood Shores (next to Black Island) and docking at Melvin Village and then we walked up the side of the road to Hansel & Gretel. Loved the penny candy and yes the fishing. If only we could all go back in time to re-live our childhood memories.

[WinterHarborGirl]

The Moultonboro Country Store was alson a yearly visit or more. I'll never forget my sister and i decided to walk to the Country Store one day thinking it was much closer than it was....Wow were we wrong...From Winter Harbor Way in Tuftonboro to Moultonboro. It seemed so fast to get there by car!!!! Don't even remember if we ever made it there....

[Grant]

Originally Posted by jenfa

I registered today just so I could reply to this.

We drive by there once and a while and I tell my husband the story of lolipop fences, penny candy and indoor fishing ponds everytime!! Fond memories!

Our family house was on Wawbeek, just across from Abenaki Tower...

When did you stay @ Wawbeek (years)? PM me if you want.

[Lucky1]

They are part of the light in our eyes and the skip in our walk and the laughter in voice. The Hansel and Gretel Shop was one such joy. My family used to rent on Castle Shores every year and to get to a supermarket one went to Meredith or the Wolfboro. When we went to Wolfboro we always stopped at the Hansel and Gretel Shop. I took my own kids there when they were small too. I think the fishing and the candy were only the part that we remember as children. It was really a gift shop I think

[tis]

If I remember right, the lower room had all dolls. Barbie and such. Anyone else remember if that is right?

[Lakepilot]

Originally Posted by tis

If I remember right, the lower room had all dolls. Barbie and such. Anyone else remember if that is right?

I remember a bunch of little rooms, but no lower room. Don't remember which one had dolls.

[old coot]

The commercial area of the Hansel & Gretel Shop was all on one floor at ground level. One large room with a "fish pond" and a few smaller rooms, also for retail display.
There were living quarters underneath, accessed from the side. The building's lot slopes off enough to accommodate a lower living area.
The business was originally conceived, owned and operated by the Wrights and subsequently changed hands a few times to the Maddens, then Clarks and then numerous other owners.

[tis]

I guess I should have said the south room when I said lower. The end of the building towards Wolfeboro. I am almost positive that was dolls.

[kunamola]

Some of my best childhood memories of Melvin Village and our home in Merrymount center around the Hansel and Gretel Store. It was one of the few places open on a Sunday when I was small. My mother can remember that the Wright's lived in the basement the first year and then built the house on top. Kit Wright always remembered my name from year to year and had a warm welcome each time children entered the building. I remember the music box and the smell of balsam. Every time I smell balsam it brings me right back into the Hansel and Gretel Shop. When I was very young you fished off a bridge, outside, by the little store. It was hard to catch a fish and I remember small animals, lambs and such being in a pen on the other side of the bridge. It wasn't long before the store grew and fishing went inside. Kit Wright was very creative and became a quilter also. I believe some of her work is in the town museum across from the post office. She has been in a nursing home in Wolfeboro for many years now. If I was wealthy and could buy back my childhood I would buy the Hansel and Gretel shop.

[Chris Exley]

As a young child in the early 70's, my parents would take us to that store. Even as we got older, I still had to stop there (though I wouldn't fish anymore). Sometime in either the late 90's or early 2000's it re-opened. They had the fishing there, and I was able to share a childhood memory with my own children. I loved the place.

[Tina Tau]

I too joined the Winnipesaukee Forum so that I could respond to this thread! When I was a child in the early 60s, and my family would take Sunday drives out of Wolfeboro, I would BEG my parents to stop at the Hansel and Gretel house. It had a magic that I can still feel, fifty years later...was it the balsam smell? The child-oriented spaces? The gingerbread look of the store from the outside, with its candy cane on the roof and lollipops around the yard? The "fishing" pond? I wish I could go back in time and see it. I'm glad to know that other people remember it fondly as well.

[mcdude]

a few images....

[rgilfert]

Wow, this thread has created a "rush" of fantastic childhood memories! I hadn't thought of the Hansel & Gretal shop for years. Summering across the cove from the Wawbeek Cottage Colony every summer, my Mom used to take my sister and I on the long hike along the shoreline to Melvin Village & the Hansel & Gretal shop a couple of time every summer (back in those days people didn't mind if strangers walked quietly across their property at the shoreline). Like virtually everyone posting before me...fantastic memories of fishing for a prize. However, being a chubby kid, I think that I actually liked all of the glass jars of penny candy best...especially the long paper strips with the little dots of candy all lined up in neat rows & columns on it! If I remember correctly (and I might not) the penny candy was put into small striped (red & green) paper bags.

[Formula]

I would like to thank everyone that posted here. This has brought me to tears as most of my aunts and uncles and some cousins are no long with me. We ALL spent time in that area and visited the store often.
Thank you!!

[WinterHarborGirl]

I agree....These are great pictures of the Hansel and Gretel Shop....Sooo many wonderful memories....Brought tears to my eyes also. Wish it was still open so I could bring My 2 year old granddaughter there. She would love it. I miss those days at the lake so much!!!

[GFP]

I have no memories, myself, of the Hansel and Gretel store, but because so many of you do, wouldn't it be wonderful for Kit Wright to get some cards and notes telling her how she added to the joy of your childhood? I'm sure it would mean a lot to her.
Does anyone have the address for her?

[jenfa]

Thank you so much for the images...Looking at these, I felt like I was walking in through the front door, headed to the counter to grab my fishing rod! Some of the best memories were made there with my siblings and friends! Just great stuff, thanks!!

[tg38]

use to be at town dock now its at the motel. Hey fomula rember lanes end before marina ?

[Lucy Goose]

So where exactly is the real one?

There is a new antique type shop calling itself Hansel and Gretel right on 109 before the Pine Cone.

LG

[Formula]

Originally Posted by tg38

use to be at town dock now its at the motel. Hey fomula rember lanes end before marina ?

What i remember is the dirt road and on the left(?) the dark cabins. I got a really bad sun burn there one year. Big bonfires! Also if I recall there was a concern of leaches so my Mom always kept salt handy...
All great memories

[mcdude]

Originally Posted by Formula

My family had a place at Lanes End. We stayed in both the cottages and the mobile home park (aka trailers).

Lots of fond memories

Old postcards of lanes end beach

[tg38]

1st pic taken from twin island 2nd pic was before all the docks were put in and before Ma Allen... any memories there????

[JEEPONLY]

Oddly enough, today, someone sent me an old news copy from:

The Tuftonboro Times - Vol XVIII, No 4 - A Quarterly Newsletter Published by the Tuftonboro Association - Fall 2016

The point was to read these three articles:

-World’s only “Salmon Sunday”
-Pope Dam constructed in 1952
-Historic home

In reading about the lineage of the home, that is graciously opened to all who attend the stripping, I didn't see the name of an owner I knew had existed. I couldn't remember the name, but knew that I would recognize it if I saw it.

This led me to Google the Hansel and Gretel Shop, which finally led me to this old thread.

The name I couldn't remember is Wright. They owned the H&G Shop. After selling, they bought the house across from Pope Dam. Nevertheless, all of the fond memories expressed earlier in this thread certainly remain for me.

Lanes End pics:
The second picture would have been taken with your back toward where the old camp store was (beyond the store was where "the point" was, which is now where the docks are. Tons of rock had to be moved to make it work.). I wouldn't be surprised if that was my grandma sitting on the huge roots of the tree that has the poster(?) on it, watching us swim!

[ApS]

Originally Posted by GFP

I have no memories, myself, of the Hansel and Gretel store, but because so many of you do, wouldn't it be wonderful for Kit Wright to get some cards and notes telling her how she added to the joy of your childhood? I'm sure it would mean a lot to her.
Does anyone have the address for her?

No memories of Hansel and Gretel Shop, either, and no excuse—Grandmother lived just up the street! Between Grandmother's house, "Hull's Camp" and "Shore Acres", we had many wonderful summers in Melvin Village. Grandmother used to press a nickel into my hand, and had me walk down to the Marion-Horner-Robie Post Office to buy a stamp. Now that I think about it, that nickel might have bought my Grandmother 45 minutes of peace.

My Dad's childhood was spent in the same house as well. His name is included with other Tuftonboro WWII servicemen, and cast in bronze in front of the Tuftonboro Library. Dad was interred just up the hill from there, the service hosted by a contingent of U.S. Navy servicemen with a Commander (officer) in charge.

You would've passed my Grandmother's house as you left The Hansel and Gretel Shop heading towards Moultonborough. This photo, taken about 1920, shows the house—which was already 110 years old when they'd bought it. Roll a golf ball across the floor in a certain direction, and it would return to you.



About eight years ago, my Dad and I were looking over the lakeside church cemetery, recalling names on the tombstones, when a red one-ton truck drove up. Recognizing a familiar face, we learned that the driver's parents, surnamed Williams, had sold that house to my Grandparents!

Otherwise, my only connection to The Hansel and Gretel Shop is that I graduated from Brewster Academy with the Wright's (still) gorgeous daughter.

[Top-Water]

The Camps.

[tg38]

I can't place the white cottages were they behind old hand well pump

[JEEPONLY]

ApS- I'd be interested to know where you got your information- the picture on Tuft. Times- Fall 2016? If you were there, as in primary source, then you're right!

The picture, 1952 construction of the Pope Dam, has two buildings in it- one quite small building to the left of construction, and another, which, I believe, faces High Street, which isn't really near the dam.

Now, I have a map, from 1860, showing "RStockridge P.Office" (on today's Route 109) right where the Horner property/store/post office of the 50s was.

Is your Dad's childhood house still there? Could you be more specific as to the location of the house?

Also, the Boody Grist Mill appears to have been erected right on top of the old dam- does this make sense?- I always thought grist mills had side-wheels that used the running water to turn the mechanics.

tg38- The Whites (the more exclusive rentals) were located to the right (with your back to the beach) of the Browns. Anyone reading this remember JEGGS?

Any way- I'm enjoying this walk down memory lane, as most of the memory threads here refer to the other side of the lake.

Remember diving off the Wawbeek 25ft. diving board- risky when you were only ten yo.

Club Melvin!

[tg38]

lanes end, daves 16' donzi, rec hall, trips to dump on back of dump truck, swimming out to twin islands, snack bar. wasn't a break water back then.

[Top-Water]

Originally Posted by tg38

I can't place the white cottages were they behind old hand well pump

I don't know where the camps / cottages were. Have never been there, saved them on a lark ages ago just because they were from winni. However I do have the back side of one that "mcdude" posted. Here's the text from the back side of the rocky beach scene if your interested. Does the proprietor name ring a bell?

[ApS]

Posted by JEEPONLY:
ApS- I'd be interested to know where you got your information- the picture on Tuft. Times- Fall 2016? If you were there, as in primary source, then you're right!

I recovered the picture. But right? About what?

The picture, 1952 construction of the Pope Dam, has two buildings in it- one quite small building to the left of construction, and another, which, I believe, faces High Street, which isn't really near the dam.

The dam was new when I saw it, and don't remember any buildings. Could it have been a pump-house for irrigation or "spring" water? Like the bottling plant's supply, the Pope Dam/Melvin River flow came directly from Mt. Shaw in the Ossipee Range.

Now, I have a map, from 1860, showing "RStockridge P.Office" (on today's Route 109) right where the Horner property/store/post office of the 50s was.

Sounds right.

Ahh...The 50s!

Is your Dad's childhood house still there? Could you be more specific as to the location of the house?

Yes. There's a barn to the right that served later as an antique store, but the house has changed hands a few times.

We referred to the barn as "The Trophy Room", where my Grandfather's many silver trophies and mounted deer heads were displayed.

He was quite the athlete, a member of a hunter's "Stocking Club" (yes, that's how they spelled it) and later became President of the Boston Athletic Association. One plaque shows he set "The World's Record" in the 40-yard dash. (At 4⅗-seconds, at Madison Square—should be a safe record). The Madison Square 440-yard dash at 50⅘-seconds.

As a hunter, he used only bow and arrow. Of the trophys' stuffed mounts, none remain. I was present when, upon request, he gave a huge set of moose antlers to a neighbor. We then went to the Tuftonboro dump with the remainder of the moose head in the trunk. Finding a pair of intertwined trees near the dump's entrance, my Dad posed the moose to greet those who would later enter the dump.

Oh yes, the question of the house. The house is still there, and has a bright robin-egg-blue metal roof. You can't miss it!



The rear corner of the barn can be seen in the above photo.

The Willing Workers Hall is a couple of hundred feet to the east. 'Seems there was a volunteer fire department building across the street. The "Quik-Mart"—old as it seems—is still "new" to me. A boat business, run by one-legged "Cap'n Thomas", abutted the roadway east of the Mart. At one time, that, combined with The Village Dining Room, and Bob Moulton's Marina and Gun Shop, all constituted Melvin Village's "Commercial District".

Also, the Boody Grist Mill appears to have been erected right on top of the old dam- does this make sense?- I always thought grist mills had side-wheels that used the running water to turn the mechanics.

I don't remember there being any structures at all. (But it has been a long time).

tg38- The Whites (the more exclusive rentals) were located to the right (with your back to the beach) of the Browns. Anyone reading this remember JEGGS?

Anyway- I'm enjoying this walk down memory lane, as most of the memory threads here refer to the other side of the lake.

We really need a Wal-Mart!

Remember diving off the Wawbeek 25ft. diving board- risky when you were only ten yo.

Club Melvin!