Warrick's Grocery

Warrick's Grocery began operating in 1858 in this building that stood on the southeast corner of Wheeling and Main streets in Washington, now a parking lot of the Observer Publishing Co. The photo was thought to have been made in the 1860s, but that is not possible because a street-car rail is visible in the bottom right corner, and tracks were not laid along South Main Street before 1890, according to Scott Becker, director of the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum. The building was razed in 1903, and the Warrick family continued to operate the grocery on the ground floor of the 4-story brick building that replaced it until moving in 1913 to the northwest corner of Wheeling and Main, where the business continued until the 1970s.

This photo has been retouched. It is possible that the photographer misspelled "Warrick," leaving out the "c" when he did so. Or perhaps the painter of the store's sign made the mistake.