Today, we continue our youthful memories of Weaversville. We recall the Danner Saw Mill.

The mill was an open-air operation that operated until the cold winter season. There was no building.

Stanley Danner, the owner, and his wife resided in Northampton. Both Stanley and his wife worked together sawing both logs and firewood. The mill yard was always filled with logs to mill. One of the mill’s best customers was the Pennsylvania State Farm, which had a large farm in Weaversville.

Stanley later constructed the present building, enclosed the mill and resided in the second story. The road adjacent to the mill is named for Danner in memory of the operation. Recently, the building owner placed a saw mill sign on the structure to recall the old mill.

The busiest building in Weaversville was the Frable General Store, which stocked groceries, meat and Atlantic gasoline. It was always busy, especially on Fridays and Saturdays. The owner, Conrad Frable, was loved by young and old.

As youths, we would walk over for soda (A-Treat) and a dip of Dolly Madison ice cream. Sitting on old folding chairs, we saw men from the Bethlehem Steel stop for cigarettes - Lucky Strike and Chesterfield were popular. Farmers would purchase Red Man chewing tobacco.

Pennsylvania Dutch was still spoken by many customers. Mr. Frable probably spoke more Dutch some days than English. Customers spoke about their problems - weather, crops and prices, politics and local gossip. You learned quite a bit just by listening. As age approached, the store was run by a new owner until it eventually moved.

The last Weaversville store was located in an old garage owned by Arch Hetrick. Arch operated the garage and was also an automobile salesman at Bethlehem Motors. One of his mechanics was Lester Christman, who resided a few steps from the garage. We still recall a comical sign that hung in the garage. It read, “If you spit on the floor at home, do so also here and feel at home.” Our reply, “No, thank you.”

Woodrow “Woody” Kleppinger owned the Weaversville Hotel and purchased the building. He operated a successful market there, specializing in fresh meat. Woody, a skilled butcher, had worked at the well-known Kornfeind’s Market in Northampton. With the advent of large supermarkets, the last store in Weaversville closed and was converted into an apartment.

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We will conclude our series in two weeks.