End of the Commons General Store, Mesopotamia (Credit: Damaine Vonada)
Location: Intersection of State Routes 534 and 87 near the west end of Mesopotamia’s village green (a.k.a. the “Commons”).
Provenance: Like most of the structures surrounding Mesopotamia’s Commons, End of the Commons General Store pre-dates the Civil War and is on the National Register of Historic Places. The white frame building, with its double front porch, was built in 1840 to house a general store that not only supplied necessities such as food and household goods, but also was a gathering place where folks could get their mail and the latest gossip. In 1982, Ken and Margaret Schaden purchased the store and its contents, which included more than a century’s worth of furniture, fixtures, and artifacts. Running it with help from their 11 children, the Schadens introduced bulk foods for the area’s Amish community and repurposed the store’s stockpile of antiquated items, turning them into décor. Their son, Peter Schaden, now owns the family business. “I’ve worked here since age 9,” he says. “I started out sweeping floors and mowing the lawn.”
Significance: End of the Commons is Ohio’s oldest continuously operated general store and one of the oldest in the nation.
Currently: With merchandise ranging from lye soap to locally crafted Amish corn brooms, End of the Commons is a nostalgic destination that attracts Amish and “Yankee” customers, as well as motorcyclists and tour buses. “Everybody loves going down memory lane, and we believe in making the store a different experience from going to Walmart or Giant Eagle,” notes Schaden. The End of the Commons experience starts outside, with a huge hitching post for horse-pulled Amish buggies, and it continues inside with a working authentic player piano; an old-fashioned barber chair complete with an animatronic “proprietor” who talks and moves; and eye-catching displays of vintage tools, signs, license plates, and memorabilia.
Also delighting shoppers are more than 1,000 kinds of bulk foods; some 200 types of soda pop in glass bottles; and 28 different penny candies. “We actually sell the candies for one cent each,” says Schaden. “That’s great for parents because they don’t go broke and their kids are happy.”
After refurbishing a nearby 1940s gas station that’s still in business, Schaden constructed a brick building to connect it with his 1840 general store. The new building contains a café where customers enjoy burgers and hand-dipped ice cream as well as a bakery that makes the super-popular fry pies.
It’s a little-known fact that: The store’s best-selling fry pies are apple and red raspberry cheesecake.
