Parker Brothers

Lennie Bird Parker and his wife Mattie Ellen Nelson Parker left their farm at Wayside in Monroe County, West Virginia, in the 1920s. He opened Parker’s General Merchandise in the building A. T. Maupin built when he demolished the old Mountain House Hotel building. 

The store was located on Vermillion Street beside the Athens Theater.

Lennie and Mattie Parker had a number of children, Fred Walsh, Otey Roy, John Harry, Frank Bird, Ruby, Robert Lee, Clara and Opie J.  Opie died at an early age. Roy, Harry, Frank, Ruby, and Clara became teachers, mostly in Mercer County public schools.

Around 1850 Lennie, who was in his 70s by then, left the business.  It became known as Parker Brothers General Merchandise. In addition to DuPont Paints, hardware, and other supplies, they were the local Hotpoint Dealership selling both Hotpoint  appliances and Kelvinator refrigerators. The neon Hotpoint sign on the front of the building was described as very memorable, heavenly blue with white lettering.  

Frank Parker, a fifth grade teacher at Athens Elementary, ran the store along with his brother Fred.  The brothers sometimes had help from Frank’s wife Bernice.  If Frank was not busy, potential shoppers could generally find him sitting at one of the large display windows, reared back in his chair with his foot propped up in the window just watching the world go by. If a customer needed something, even something as small as a nail or screw, Frank knew exactly where it was and would jump up to go get it or point to it. The store was not somewhere to browse, but you were tempted since it was filled with all kinds of interesting items like appliances, hardware and tools. When Frank wasn’t teaching he could be found at the store.  

Frank loved baseball. At lunch he was known to take his class and find another class to play, and outside they would head for a pickup game of baseball.  Frank was brusque in both the store and the classroom. The only time he wasn’t was when he was reading aloud to the class after lunch. He had a great reading voice. He was able to make the characters come alive in the listeners’ mind. Frank instilled the love of reading in many of his students.

The Parker Brothers store was not a playground for the youth in the town. It was just a typical appliance and hardware store where mom could get that much needed new stove, refrigerator, washer or dryer or dad could pick up some hardware or that new saw he had been wanting for awhile.

Frank Parker died in 2001, and Fred in 2006. Change inevitably happens. I’m sure both were saddened to see the building where they, and their father before them, spent so much of their lives, torn down in 1997 to make way for the new, modern First Community Bank building. Demolition photos are included in the Change chapter of Athens We Knew.