Candy shops, soda fountains, pharmacies
Only a handful of stores remain that flourished
By Bob Cudmore, Focus on History, Daily Gazette, 8-27-05
Recent stories on the history of Hill and Markes, which began as a candy and ice cream store on Brookside Avenue in 1906, plus the 80th anniversary of Samuel Fariello’s confectionery on Lincoln Avenue in Amsterdam have prompted phone calls on similar shops.
Anne DeGroff recalled Hill’s Confectionery at 202 Guy Park Avenue. “It was a busy little place,” DeGroff said.
The proprietor was Frank Hill, according to the 1932 City Directory. In later years, his daughters ran the store--Ruth Hill, who lived nearby at 208 Guy Park, and Doris Morris. Apparently, this family was not related to Amos Hill of Hill and Markes.
The Guy Park Avenue candy shop closed around 1977 when Ruth Hill died, according to Joseph DiBlasi, whose DiBlasi Agency now occupies that address. Joseph’s father, Meadeo DiBlasi, started the insurance agency in 1949 and for some years owned the building where Hill’s was located. After the store closed, the building was demolished and an addition constructed for the insurance agency.
Joseph DiBlasi said the Hills made their own candy, sold newspapers and were busy every morning. “I used to go in there a lot,” DiBlasi said.
The 1932 City Directory listed 70 confectionery shops in Amsterdam. Vanished confectioners include: Berning’s Ice Cream Parlor at 168 Guy Park Avenue, Boston Candy Kitchen at 91 East Main and Schumm and Yerke at 145 Market Street.
Some of the confectioneries were also drug stores. One drug store that remains in business, although its soda fountain closed in 1966, is Schell’s Pharmacy at 193 East Main. Founded by Lithuanian-American Joseph G. Schell in 1927, the pharmacy boasted a white marble counter with 13 stools. John Rakstsis, pharmacist and proprietor of Schell’s today, recalled that the Oriental was a popular sundae, featuring strawberry and pineapple toppings. The Black and White had chocolate sauce and marshmallow.
A 1932 photo of Schell’s showed pharmacist Joseph Schell and, behind the soda fountain, Ben Kroup, who went on to be a city engineer, and an unidentified worker. At the time, Giuffre’s Produce Company was next door to Schell’s. Also on the block were cobbler Carmelo Caruso, East End Fish Market, International Meat Market, barber Joseph Ramonas, undertaker Edward Gustas and Frank Leonette’s confectionery. Among the businesses on the other side of East Main were Atlas Lunch, Tambasco and Marsicano’s meat market, clothier Michael Dzikowicz and photographer Joseph Krawczeski.
In 1957, Joseph Schell sold the pharmacy to Peter Schell (no relation) and Charles William Rakstis, the current proprietor’s brother.
John Rakstis said that Schell’s made its own toppings and that at one time ice cream cones were ten cents, twenty cents for a double dip. The soda fountain was not a consistent moneymaker when Rakstis started working at Schell’s in 1961. On cold winter days, he recalled working fourteen hours at the counter and taking in a grand total of only fourteen dollars.
THE MEDICINE SHOW
Callers to my WVTL radio talk show on local history provided information on Doctor Wood’s Medicine Show that came to Amsterdam in the 1930s and 1940s when the callers were young children.
Dr. Wood would set up at a parking lot on Park Street near the Bigelow-Sanford carpet plant. Today, the spot is occupied by a metal building. Sometimes, the medicine show was located on a field at the city limits on Locust Avenue.
Attractions included a woman with a huge snake, exotic dancers and a humorous skit called “Ten Nights in a Barroom.” There was a contest to find the person who could scream the loudest. Salesmen hawked cure-all medicines but there was no charge to see the show.
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