Mahone Bay Old School_A Life and Times_Bob Sayer

The Smeltzers [who rented] and Maders then shared this two family building,
and the Maders may have run the concrete business, now the Amos
Pewter site, together with the Smeltzers in 1914, or, a little later, bought the
business.
• Bobby Mader, as a small boy in the 1920s, often visited his great uncle
John’s home and works. Bobby describes how what is now the Pewter Shop
was [once a forge] used for casting. The business made concrete well crocks,
tombstones, birdbaths and any other concrete fittings or decorations for
home-including chimneys built in sections [see photo below of chimney
blocks made at the plant].
• George Silver pointed them out to this writer. They can be seen at the back
of 469 Main Street, a few feet from the fire hydrant on Cherry St.].
• Bobby still has a birdbath from the works. It can be seen in his front garden
at School St. From the late 1950s through to the early 70s the town school
would often borrow the birdbath and fill it with flowers for decorating the
stage at graduations.
George Silver observed: “If something could be made of concrete, the plant
could make it.”]
Sophie Smeltzer ‘Birch Beer’ Store
• ‘ Next [now the Yarn Shop at no. 583] was a nice little lady…Sophie Smeltzer…
with a small store. She always had Birch Beers.’
• [Dennis Zwicker, 86 years old when I spoke with him, and another veteran,
George Silver, remember it as spruce beer. These commercial and homemade
beers were non-alcoholic family soft drinks, like root beer-which was also
made in those days. Dennis told of the joke around Mahone one day when
the town drunk was seen leaving Mrs. Smeltzer’s. Had he changed his drinking
habits? Dennis and others also remember Mrs. Smeltzer got her main
living at the shop from baking bread and other goodies.]
Roggie Langille’s Teakettle Repair Place
‘Next to the Birch Beer place was Roggie Langille’s teakettle repair place [now the
Gazebo Café, street no. 567].
No one bought a new one…..Just take it to Roggie and he would sodder [Fred’s
spelling] it up…Roggie’s building housed [upstairs] the Rebecca Lodge [good cakes
at their monthly meeting].’
• [Roggie-Roger-was descended from Titus Langille, the ship builder whose
yard had been behind the shop. In 1914 the Langille Yard no longer produced.
Roggie was the town tinsmith. As old-timers like George Silver and Dennis
Zwicker pointed out, there was no all-purpose hardware store to pop into
in those days. Folks went to Roggie to make or repair household-workshop
items now taken for granted, like funnels, saucepans and pots as well as
more luxury tin ware. He also sold stoves and, later, fridges.
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