Winter 2025 Newsletter

Dear Subscriber First Name

News

Our congratulations to the Strafford Community Trust and our thanks to all who contributed toward reaching its fundraising goal of $1.8 million, an extraordinary accomplishment by such a small community. This will enable the purchase and renovation of Coburns’ General Store, which has been both a landmark and an invaluable community resource. We owe a great debt of gratitude to the Coburn family for their 48 years of service to our community. Under new management, may this general store long continue.

While Coburns’ General Store, under that name, has ‘only’ been around since 1977, the site of the building reaches all the way back to Justin Smith Morrill’s grandfather, Smith Morrill, a blacksmith, who bought the land in this area of South Strafford in 1795. In 1885, Howard Gilkey built the building we see today. He operated a store there for 47 years, the record for continuous service by a Strafford storekeeper until Melvin Coburn himself broke that record this year.

Renovation update

Renovation of the Strafford Historical Society and Community Center continues. Our contractor Blake Spencer, who is approaching retirement, has, to date, overseen the transformation of its interior. We are grateful for his help and will miss his guidance and support. Current tasks continuing toward completion in this current phase include the following:

Strafford’s two village stores

As two of Strafford‘s store buildings merit special mention this year —Coburns’ Store building having reached its 100th birthday in I985, and the old White Store in the upper village having been extensively restored —it seems fitting to present here a blog post describing the brief history of our main commercial structures.

Originally from the 1985 Town Report Historical Note written by Gwenda Smith, the history of Strafford’s stores has been revised to include new owners and recent updates.