Storing Up For The Buy and Buy

Neidhardt's General Store was a fixture on Jerusalem Avenue in Merrick from the World War I era until the early 1950s, when the building was destroyed by fire.

The building, situated near the corner of Meadowbrook Road, was transformed from a bar into a general store around 1917 by Henry Neidhardt, according to his granddaughter, Regina Coons of Massapequa. The store sold a variety of items, including gasoline, penny candy, ice cream, cold cuts and fresh vegetables Neidhardt grew on a farm next door.

Neidhardt lived above the store with his wife, Regina, and their four children, Frieda, Wilma, Henry and Frank, Coons said.

"He used to sell tomatoes, corn and lettuce," Coons said. "I used to like to help him with the ice cream. He would scoop it out into cones."

One feature that Coons remembers is that the building never had an indoor bathroom. Even into the 1950s, travelers who stopped for a cold drink had to content themselves with an outhouse.