The many lives of Watermelon
The Watermelon Compound (a new moniker) was built sometime around 1880, and slowly expanded over the next 140 years to the building you see today. Many of the local residents worked in the nearby industrial area and we know that a few of the early residents of the house worked for the Amercan Marble Cutting Company, established in 1885.
Several different industries also opened within a few blocks of the home, including the Brumby Rocking Chair Co, a marble mill, and a hosiery mill. This building became a grocery store in 1941, and remained so for the next 30 years. Mrs. Lillian Hill ran the grocery store, Hill’s Grocery, after her husband Clarence left in 1952. She later expanded the building to include a food storage warehouse and a one-room hotel (now used for AirBnb guests). There have been additional stories from neighbors that Mrs. Hill also operated a bar on the premises at one point, but no official records have been discovered yet.
Behind the house, and additional store was built in 1947 and operated for several years as a doll socks and accessory manufacturer. It later became storage and an office, and has recently been renovated into a small cottage
“I always stopped there and bought penny candy on my way to high school. My two brothers and I all worked there while we were growing up. Mrs. Hill dipped snuff and could shoot a stream of spit all the way from the old fashioned cash register to the spittoon in the corner.” – Harry
