The Penny Candy Counter at Brown & Hopkins
Inside Brown & Hopkins Country Store, the penny candy counter preserves one of the most familiar traditions of the old American general store. Glass jars, wooden shelves, vintage containers, advertisements, and small pieces of merchandise fill the space behind the counter. Rather than presenting history in a formal museum display, the store allows visitors to experience it in the same setting where generations of Chepachet residents once made their everyday purchases.
At the center of the counter is an ornate mechanical cash register made by the National Cash Register Company. Established in Dayton, Ohio, during the 1880s, the company became the nation’s leading manufacturer of cash registers. Its early machines were designed not only to record sales and protect a merchant’s money, but also to serve as impressive fixtures within a store. The elaborate metal casing, decorative patterns, numbered keys, and raised display showing dollars and cents reflect a period when even practical business equipment was created with considerable craftsmanship.
For generations of children, however, the most important attraction was the candy. A few coins offered the freedom to choose from a colorful assortment of individual treats. The purchase may have been small, but the experience of standing at the counter, considering the possibilities, and watching the amount appear on the old register often became a lasting childhood memory. Current owner Cynthia Barlow has recalled visiting Brown & Hopkins as a girl and buying penny candy here long before she imagined that she would one day own the store.
The candy may no longer cost a penny, but the tradition continues. Children can still approach the counter and make their selections while adults are reminded of similar visits from their own childhoods. Surrounded by worn shelves, old containers, and the beautifully decorated register, the penny candy area connects the store’s commercial history with the personal memories created inside it. It is a small corner of Brown & Hopkins, but it helps explain why this continuously operating country store has remained meaningful to the people of Chepachet for more than two centuries.
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