The dairy bars of Dawson
The good folks of Dawson look sadly at the handwritten sign on the cracked glass of the Dairy Store door, announcing that the last retail store of the historic town has closed for good.
Standing on Railroad Street at the main crossing, the little grocery had a life span nearly as long as the borough itself and was so critical to the town’s needs that a new masonry structure was built around the existing frame store. During that construction, business went on as usual.
In years past, the store had carried hardware, kerosine, plants, garden tools, and livestock feed in addition to groceries.
Other than an auto repair shop, a laundry/car wash, and maybe prophetically a funeral home, Dawson’s business community has reached the stage of sunset.
Not unlike small towns everywhere, mobile residents speed away to greener pastures and family businesses that serve diminishing populations are left in the dust of history.
In its heyday, Dawson quickly became a “boom” town due to the dramatic rise of the coal and coke industry. Family-owned industry thrived, and retail ventures served the nearly 1,000 residents well.
Commercially, the tiny town may have been the forerunner of the shopping village concept. With no less than three hotels, several filling stations, several grocery stores (one was the American Store, forerunner of the Acme chain), a theater, opera house, clothing and shoe stores, a drug store and a dairy bar. Small, family businesses flourished.
Passenger trains stopped regularly and unloaded supplies, freight, commuters and mail. A Catholic church and three Protestant churches served the area’s religious needs.
The last of the town’s benefactors, Sarah B. Cochran, died in 1936. That may have signaled the end of Dawson’s golden age.
Born in 1938, I began walking the town daily in the late 1940s with a Sun-Telegraph paper route.
While a lot of the commercial buildings were abandoned or gone, the town was still vibrant with a busy drug store, bank, furniture and appliance store, and several clubs. The B&O Railroad and the P&LE Railroad yards across the bridge still provided employment. The Dawson House hotel and the Rush House hotel were operating, and both had bars.
In a discussion about milkshakes, (we used to make our own) I recalled a time when it was possible to get a good milkshake at any one of four locations in town. Even while the remaining residents were becoming increasingly mobile, Baer’s Dairy Bar had great milkshakes, as well as root beer floats in a frosted mug. A little further up RR Street, the Stewart family operated Stewart’s Dairy Bar, with a full dairy and light lunch menu.
Across the tracks, along the eastbound rails, the Haas family opened a full service Dairy Store, with ice cream and a short-order menu. One of the last newer commercial outlets, the changing dynamics of the town shortened the life of the family dairy store. All of the stores had stools or tables for customers.
Bixler’s Drug was also a popular location with a soda counter, magazines and great milkshakes.
Surrounded by Lower Tyrone Township and adjacent to the village of Hulltown, the little borough could still provide basic and convenience services to a slowly diminishing clientele.
But time is a tough master.
Each year it seemed a business or two would close. Short-order restaurants would come and go. Newell’s Dairy Store was the final chapter. Dawson is still a great little town with a lot of pride.
And we will miss the last dairy store!
Roy Hess Sr. is a retired teacher and businessman from Dawson.