HISTORICAL TREASURES AT THE LIBRARY, Part 2

HISTORICAL TREASURES AT THE LIBRARY, Part 2

An historical treasure in the Martinsburg library is an 1889 popcorn vending wagon located at the entrance into the adult library. The wagon was made by the Kingery Manufacturing Company of Cincinnati, Ohio.  It belonged to George Ashton, a street vendor who sold popcorn every night (except Sundays) for many years on the corner of Burke and Queen Streets from around 1910 through the mid- 1950s.  

Saturday nights were the best time for business since stores were open and the downtown was bustling with people, so Ashton sold popcorn at every intersection along Queen Street on those nights. From when he first opened his business, and until the start of World War II (when there was a scarcity of them), Ashton also sold peanuts, cracker jacks, chewing gum, and penny candies. Many older members of the Martinsburg community might remember buying popcorn downtown from him or one of his helpers on a Saturday night.

 

The wagon was passed through a number of owners but eventually ended up back in Ashton’s family with his grandson, Max Mosse, who donated it to the library in 2008, as a nostalgic piece of Martinsburg’s history.