Mickey Day, second from right, from Farm and Home Services, with his parents, Joann Clements and Marilyn Poole, on Dec. 12, when Montgomery County Parks announced that Farm and Home Services will be the tenant at the newly refurbished Seneca Store. Photo by Peggy McEwan
Montgomery Parks announced the proposed tenant for Seneca Store, known locally as Poole’s Store, Dec. 12.
Scott Whipple, project manager for the rehabilitation of the building announced the lease for the use of the store was awarded to Mickey Day of Farm and Home Supply, an independent Southern States supplier.
In awarding the contract to Farm and Home, Montgomery Parks fulfilled its goals to create a working store at the location and create a heritage destination.
This building has been a general store since 1901, according to Whipple.
“The last proprietors, the Poole family, provided a convenient supply of feed and specialized goods and services to local equestrian, hunting, and farming communities in the Poolesville area and throughout the Agricultural Reserve for more than 40 years,” he said.
A handful of local residents attended the announcement ceremony, and all seemed happy with the choice of tenant.
Marilyn Poole and her sister Joann Clements have worked at the store since they were teenagers, helping their parents. They continued with Farm and Home Services, running the feed and grain business from the warehouse on the property during the renovation of the store.
“I’m excited to have indoor plumbing,” Clements said.
Whipple said he did not know when the store will be open for business as details of the lease have to be worked out.
“I’m so excited to be back in this store,” Day said. “We plan to bring it back to what Poole’s Store used to be.”
Day said he took over the Farm and Home Supply business from his father in 2010. His father started in 1952.
After the meeting, where Whipple introduced several members of the reconstruction team, including archeologist Heather Bouslog, who told the audience about some of the finds her team made when excavating what was once a mill stone pit. Information on the excavation can be found on the Seneca Store website.
As the meeting ended, people shared their Poole’s Store memories.
“This store has been in my life 65 years,” Barbara Jackson, who lives nearby, said. “My family has been buying things, food, etc., because it was the closest store. You had to go to Rockville. … I’m glad it’s back.”
Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission Montgomery Parks acquired the Seneca Store and adjacent Upton Darby miller’s house in 1976. The rehabilitation project began in August 2018 and culminated in a ribbon cutting ceremony Oct 2019.
Comments may be submitted online at montgomeryparks.org/projects/public-input from Dec. 13 – 20, or directed via phone or mail to: Scott Whipple, Scott Whipple, Project Manager II, M-NCPPC, 8301 Turkey Thicket Dr., Gaithersburg, MD 20879
301.670.8063