A few signs are all that’s left of the once thriving “Boody’s Corner” at the intersection of routes 35, 302, and 115. There was once a Boody enterprise on each corner. The majority of the citizens of Windham have never heard of this once-influential family who originated in New Hampshire and moved in 1768 to Limington. Rev. Robert Boodey and his wife raised 13 children.

Rev. Boodey’s grandsons Edmund and Henry H. (changing the spelling of their last name) came to Windham in the early 1800s. North Windham, all 63 lots of 70 acres each and bounded in part by Sebago Lake, was laid out and surveyed in 1801 – the final part of Windham.

Edmund Boody was a selectman and ran a tavern at the corner of routes 115 and 302. His brother Henry owned property south of the intersection next to a blacksmith shop.

Henry built and ran a store where Walgreen’s is in 2015 and opposite, another son was operating yet another store. Near where Dairy Queen once stood was a hotel, which was taken down before 1900, so it says in Windham history. A big rambling general store was built in its place and Howard H. Boody was the sole owner in 1883.

At the corner where Walgreen’s is now, Lizzie Boody ran a millinery shop and sold thread and sewing items. Howard Boody acquired a great deal of property in the local area and in 1932 was the largest individual taxpayer in the town. Boody’s was remembered as being a place where you could get anything from tires to molasses, but it was not to last. On Thanksgiving Day in 1930, Boody’s and many other buildings at the corner burned, taking with them the library, barber shop and post office – all contained in the store.

Boody’s was rebuilt and in 1960 the store went out of the Boody family. In 1965, a final fire took the store and lots of memories. The Dairy Queen replaced it in 1967.

Boody’s Store once stood where Dairy Queen is located in North Windham.Photo courtesy of Windham Historical Society