Colerider Descendents

Most of these old building on Main Street are known by name, at least to Grafton natives. The names are usually derived from the original owner/builder. Sometimes an occupant was significant enough to override the original name (the JCPenney Building, for example), but generally the original name sticks.

The Grafton 123 is in the Colerider Building.

A month or so ago I got an email from Henry Colerider's Great-granddaughter!

Here's the email (the link below works, too, for more information on Henry and his extended family):

"Dear M.K.,
I am Henry Colerider's Great Granddaughter. I was googling his name and found out about your Coffee Shop. I was very happy to learn that Henry's building is still standing and being used in such wonderful fashion in Grafton. I am very curious about the previous tenants of the building... bakery, Insurance Agency, and dentist.
That is so strange... my GG Grandfather moved from Grafton to Fayetteville, NC and his office building in Fayetteville housed a bakery downstairs and a dentist's office upstairs. It is so strange that in both cities he would have buildings and the same kind of businesses used his buildings. The Fayetteville information is from my mother, who knows this to be true because she and her sisters inherited the Fayetteville building from my Grandmother. A dentist was renting that building when the sisters sold it.
It was interesting to learn that you are a writer. I am too. My name appears in about 130 text books. I'm a retired middle school science teacher, and until recently, I published science texts for Glencoe McGraw Hill. I've tried publishing children's books, with no success.
If you'd like to see pictures of Henry and learn about the man, you can go to my website:
<http://www.susanleachsnyder.com/Genealogy/Generation5HenryColerider.html>
May I have permission to use your pictures of the coffee shop on my website? I'd love to include them.
Sincerely,
Susan Leach Snyder"

Tourism

Blogger's photo upload isn't working right now, so this post isn't what I thought it was....

Over at MKStover.com, I've been posting about my trip to Oregon.
I went to Oregon for a Coffee Business/Barista Training and took a gazillion pictures of neat things.
Mainly, I was interested in the little town and its history and attractions because Grafton has the potential to be a major tourist attraction (International Mother's Day Shrine, The B&O Railroad Heritage Center, Tygart Lake, Grafton National Cemetery, The West Virginia National Cemetery, and more - see The Taylor County West Virginia site for links and info) and it's good to see other places who have made that potential a reality. Grafton has made major strides towards realizing this economic foundation and I like to think I'm helping it along a little bit.
As a matter of fact, I've been posting so much about the little Oregon town that I have not even touched on the Coffee side of the trip; I plan to, but not in depth. Instead, you'll have to visit us when we open and taste for yourself.

Entryway Construction - Part 3

PC, PR, & Curtis opened up the doorway last weekend.
Here's PR:






This has been the plan all along, but it's one thing to visualize an idea and something else to actually see it become reality. I was excited when I went down Saturday morning and walked through the wall for the first time.
Look at that! A doorway!


I'm still fascinated with the brick work from more than a century ago.
Here's the cross section of the cut in the wall:

If you look closely, you can see wooden wedges in some of these brick courses (more on this later...).

And inside looking out:

The line of sight looking down Main Street is amazing! This is exactly what we wanted to see even before the very first inspection hole PC cut in the brick.
[See the red caboose?]

Exciting!

Rain

Last week we had enough rain that there was some serious -though thankfully short-lived- flooding.
No problems with all the rain at The 123, but click here for a picture of the driveway at our home.