Lyn’s Main Street General Store

History of the former General Store on Main Street, Lyn

The former Miller General Store on Main Street , 25 Main St West, was first owned by A. T. Trickey, who was a drug store general merchant. He ran it until approximately 1890 when it was purchased by Mr. Gardiner. Mr. Gardiner did not have a druggist pharmacy license so he hired a fellow from Tamworth, Ontario by the name of C. M. Taylor. He went to work for Mr. Gardiner, later married Mr. Gardiner’s daughter and eventually took over the store. They eventually took over the Gardiner house, which is north of the United Church. They lived there for many years and had one daughter who lived there until approximately the 1950’s. Then Eldon Coon took over that house and built a new house for Miss Taylor. The Coleman’s originally built the house, and it was said that every brick in it had been wrapped in tissue paper and shipped from England and all the steel rims around the outside had been made in France by the same people who made the Eiffel Tower. When John McCready took over the store it became more of a grocery store than anything. He sold ice from the ice house behind the store. Stack’s hotel that was next to it burned in 1928 and what was left of the walls remained there until the late 1940’s. He ran the store until the late 1940’s when he sold it to his son Dave McCrady. Dave ran the store for a couple of years and then sold it to Frank McCrady, his brother. In 1947 Frank sold it to Earl “Dusty” and Cleta Miller. They took over the store, enlarged it, fixed the apartment upstairs and lived above the store. They built a building beside the store from which they sold appliances. They ran it until 1985 when they sold it to the Pourier Brothers. Under their ownership the business didn’t survive and they left. The store was sold to a fellow from Hopetown. He started to renovate the inside but it caught fire and burned through the roof. The lot remained empty until Ursula Veltcamp bought it and built the little restaurant that is now there.

J.C.McCrady Red & White Store