Chester Landmark Giving Way To Modern Store

Busy travelers passing by the old Chester Store might not take too much notice of it.

It’s a small building with some gas pumps out front. Though older than most, it could be any rural gas-and-go.

To understand what distinguishes the place, you have to know a little history. Or, just go inside the building at the intersection of Dishman-Mica and Bowdish roads.

Owner Wayne Ady, 70, knows just about everyone who enters, and they know him. The door constantly fans open and shut, admitting a flow of friendly faces saying, “Hi, Wayne!” from beneath Cenex caps.

Ady will lock the doors for good tonight. The Chester Store will be torn down. In November, it will be replaced by a newer building and Ady’s son, David, will take over.

Ady bought the business in 1972, but the current building was built in the mid-1940s. The Chester Store, though, has been around since about the turn of the century. That original building burned down in the ‘40s.

Sally Gerimonte, now 60, was in the store with her mother at the time of the fire. She remembers being “scared to death” when the store’s refrigeration system blew up.

Gerimonte, then 9, helped build the current store. She was paid 5 cents an hour to hammer nails. She still lives just across the street.

“I’m coming down with my hammer and I’m pounding in at least one nail in the new building,” she said.

During his charge, Ady saw the business change from a true grocery store to a quicky mart.

“We used to sell $1,000 in groceries per week,” said the soft-spoken Ady. A growing Valley has caught up to Chester, and so have supermarkets.

In its heyday, the Chester Store was a full-line mercantile business. It also stocked animal feed. Gerimonte has a weathered photo showing the hitching post out front, and a china plate her mother bought at the original store.

When she was growing up, it was the hub of Chester.

“We were there every day,” she said. “It was kind of the gathering place for all the kids after school.”

That at least hasn’t changed. Although people living nearby don’t have to rely on the Chester Store for everything, they still stop by en masse.

That has kept Ady and his wife, Eva, busy.

“If you don’t enjoy it, you shouldn’t be here,” Ady said. “Especially if you stay here all day.”

Although Ady doesn’t admit it (“They won’t miss me,” he said), customers come in just to see him.

Loren Garber lives in Latah, but goes to the Chester Store every day.

“Yeah, we’ve sat here and talked politics many a morning,” he said of Ady.

Garber thought the construction work in back was going to be an addition. The news of demolition was a surprise.

He turned to Ady and exclaimed, “You’re tearing down a landmark!” Ady shrugged. The old, squarish wood building was made of scrap lumber. The new one will be sturdier, with a western-style facade.

Then, the good-natured barbs flew.

“I buy 90 percent of my gas here because he charges the most,” Garber said through a wry grin. “But I like to talk to his granddaughter if she’s working instead of him. She’s nice. She has personality.”

Ady smiled drly, shook his head, and returned to work.

Gerimonte thinks Chester folks will still see Ady behind the register when the store re-opens, at least sometimes. Twenty-year habits are hard to break.

“He won’t stay away,” she said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo