Hastings Store
Jane & Garey Larrabee
PO Box 58
West Danville VT 05873-0058
802-684-3398
Store Home Page: http://www.Hastings-Store.com/

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How to Get There

Approaching from Interstate-91 north/south:

• Take exit 21, and head west on route 2
• After traveling approximately 10 miles (measured by car it is 10 miles to the button from the front steps at Hastings to the on/off ramps of exit 21) you will have entered the town of West Danville.
• Ahead of you, you will see signs for the continuation of route 2 and the intersection it has with route 15
• Of the two stores you will arrive at, at the junction, we are the larger of the two, red in color.

Danville General is 2.7 miles from us...so you can use these to get there too (ex. 7.3 miles to I-91 instead of 10).

Coming from I-89 south bound:

• Take exit 8 into Montpelier. You will enter onto route 2 east.
• Stay on route 2 east for approximately 35 miles; you will enter right into West Danville.
• Coming over a bridge, after having passed Joe's Pond on your left (semi-huge body of water), you will see signs for the junction of routes 2 & 15
• At that juncion we are only a couple hundred feet away on route 2.
• We are the second (as well as the largest) store on the left, red in color.

Coming from I-89 north bound:

• Take exit 7 into Berlin.
• Follow the road you enter through two sets of traffic lights, past the Berlin Mall, and then past Central Vermont Hospital both on your left.
• Continue down the hill (direction Montpelier), and at the stop light you will turn left
• Continue another mile to another stop light. You will see Walker Ford on your left.
• Turn right onto route 2 east.
• Stay on route 2 for approximately 32 miles you will enter right into West Danville.
• Coming over a bridge, after having passed Joe's Pond on your left (semi-huge body of water), you will see signs for the junction of routes 2 & 15
• At that junction we are only a couple hundred feet away on route 2.
• We are the second (as well as the largest) store on the left, red in color.

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Since being built sometime prior to 1853, Hastings Store has come a long way and seen many changes in town, in its almost ninety years of service to the West Danville/Joe's Pond community.

The building, which was eventually to become Hastings Store, first found its use as a stagecoach stop and inn in a thriving community which included: a casket maker, a saw mill and gristmill, a granite finishing business, a dry goods mail order store, and various other small businesses. The village also had its own train station near the beach area (this included a passenger station at the end of the pond, now the location of the beach).

Gilbert and Jennie Hastings purchased the Burt Wells store in 1913. This was the time of the "pot-bellied" stove and the "loafer bench", when wood heated the store, and kerosene lamps had to be cleaned, filled, and lighted each day. Some have called it the "Ice Age" for electricity had not yet been brought to the village nor around the pond, and great blocks of ice, sawed from the ice that blanketed the pond in winter, supplied the refrigeration needs of the day.

Hastings Store was a combination grocery, dry goods, meat market, millinery, dress goods, hardware, kerosene, ice house, and lumber yard. The Hastings were busy then, preparing homemade horseradish, smoking and curing fresh cut meats, and stockpiling ice cut from Joe's Pond. Without electricity in the area, ice was in great demand especially in the summer with those who came to their cottages around the pond. At the onset of their ownership Jennie Hastings assumed responsibility for the U. S. Post Office. She continued as "Postmistress" until 1946.

When Ralph and Mabel took over responsibility for the store and Ralph the Post Office, the store had been electrified and the need for ice had dwindled dearly. Ralph and Mabel were committed, like the elder Hastings, to doing their very best at serving the community. Ralph's attentiveness to his postal customers and the position he held won him numerous recognitions and awards for service. Besides her enthusiasm for the store business Mabel, over the years, took an active interest in school and church activities, as well as in the children of the village. Many remember her for her help on homework, research papers or pulling a loose tooth.

In 1976 the Hastings handed over general management of the business to their daughter Jane, and her husband Garey, thus ushering in the store's third generation of ownership. On October 3rd, 1992, Ralph retired from his Postal position, having logged fifty plus years of service with the U. S. Government, starting out in the South Pacific, while serving in the Army Air Corps, during WWII, and finally as Postmaster. Though they shed their responsibility, Ralph and Mabel still continued to help in the store and keep and eye on things.

Today, Hastings Store continues in the same folksy tradition. Besides offering a fine line of groceries, produce and "fresh-cut" meats the store offers its customers the convenience of purchasing hunting/fishing licenses, investing in the lottery games, wiring money worldwide, as well as Jane and Garey's services as Notaries Public, and Jane's abilities as Justice of the Peace.

While keeping its down home atmosphere, Hastings Store is keeping in tune with the times, the store now houses an ATM, in addition to offering fax service and photocopies. When visiting the store, you may even run into Jenny or Curtis, the store's fourth generation in training. Things have changed; folks have come and gone; the pot-bellied stove has been replaced with central heat and the loafers bench retired, yet the atmosphere at HASTINGS STORE has remained the same. And every once in a while the smells and fragrances of the past seem to waft throughout the store.

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See Jane Larrabee of Hastings on the VAICS video!

Photos of ice cutting on Joe's Pond on the VAICS video!

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