a Monterey moment

Saturday, November 10, 2012, was the day the most defining building in Monterey was put on the auction block. That building is what has recently been known as Diane's Deli and, when I was young, Hartman's Store. "Store" because besides groceries, one could get hardware, thread, and most items in between. I believe I started working there in 1957--a few evenings and Saturday. Pay was 35 cents an hour (my parents got two-thirds) plus a bonus of one candy bar or bottle of soft drink. Hen Hartman was the proprietor along with his mother, Ma Hartman, and two children, Ken and Gwen, not twins, despite their names. Ken, middle in photo, was two years younger than me. The man on left told me that he is the oldest man living in Monterey. With all my memories of childhood, I figured the sale would start at 200 thousand and go up. Actually, the auctioneer started at 200 and had to go down to 50 until he got a bid. Bidding stopped at 140, but the sellers would not accept that. Porch extends the whole length of the building.  At other end is the store.  Photo by Dennis Yates.

Haunted Monterey house sold

Monterey's haunted house for 20 years was sold. Before its fame as haunted, the house was Furman funeral home from about 1954 to 1964. Before that is was Overly funeral home. Overly was bearded and a member of the Church of the Brethren. A neighbor has an invoice for his services i n the late 1940s--$70, exactly. He was known to flush his formaldehyde down his well. It overflowed sometimes and sickened the ducks across the road.

After 1964 Furman moved his undertaker operations to much better digs on Main Street, Leola. The owner made the house into three apartments which became abandoned about 1990. Children avoided it on Halloween. Weeds grew. Paint peeled. Windows cracked. Rodents invaded. Who knows, maybe ghosts hovered.
In the photo here the focus is on the building behind the house where the bodies were prepared for funerals.

The property sold at public auction on Tuesday for $157,000.