Glen Haven General Store

Getting groceries a hundred years or so ago.

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Quick Facts

Amenities

6 listed

Gifts/Souvenirs/Books, Historical/Interpretive Information/Exhibits, Information - Maps Available, Information - Park Newspaper Available, Information - Ranger/Staff Member Present, Restroom

Closed for the 2024 Season

The Glen Haven General Store is an America's National Parks sales area. It features t-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, nature games, postcards, books, videos, and convenience items. Public restrooms and vending machines are available nearby during the summer.

Glen Haven General Store History

There was only one place in the late 19th century and 20th century that provided the necessities for life-meat, produce, fabrics, communication and tools: the General Store. It was the hub of D.H. Day's company. The lumbermen and dock workers were paid in company "scrip" so they could only shop at this store. At different times in its history, the store served as a post office, ticket and freight office for steamers, telegraph station, lumber salesroom, real estate office, and U.S. weather station. It was the nerve center in the hustle and bustle of the town. D.H. Day's own wife refused to live in the large home he built her and insisted instead on living above the store.

Behind the store were an icehouse, granary, slaughterhouse, and croquet lawn.

What could you buy at the store? Flour, coffee, sugar, canned milk, prepared foods, cleaners, candy; local milk, butter, eggs, fruit, and vegetables; cloth, clothes, shoes, hats, gloves, and bedding; tools, building materials, household items, toys, and farm implements; smoking, chewing, and pipe tobacco; patent medicine for humans and animals; gasoline, oil, tires, inner tubes, pumps, and spark plugs; post cards, booklets, picnic baskets, camping gear, fishing poles, nets; and Native American baskets, birch bark and quill work.

Gasoline was purchased from the gasoline pump in front of the store. Gas was pumped into the glass cylinder atop the pump, which was marked in gallons like an oversized beaker and then drained via a release valve through a hose into the car or truck's tank.

The General Store currently sells snacks and souvenirs and offers a small exhibit about D. H. Day.