From the time the first sawmill was built in the middle of the 1700s, a building has stood at the corner of Main and Depot Streets in South Windham. This view of that corner shows Patsy’s store, dating from the early 1900s, owned by Pasquale Miele, an Italian immigrant. Prior to that, it served as a tavern but not the kind we are familiar with. Taverns of the old days provided shelter and rest for “teamsters”, stagecoaches and men and their horses. During the past 100 years, the building at this corner served the village residents with a grocery store, drugstore, barbershop, library, the first place citizens could buy Italian sandwiches, and many other uses. Today, it has come full circle and is an apartment building – again providing shelter. (Photo from the collection of Windham Historical Society).

Lakes Region Remembered