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A Gathering
Point for Generations
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Mace’s Store has been a meeting point in Aurora for 150
years. This year, as the Department of Transportation
replaces the old Route 9, fifth-generation proprietor Melody
Mace Knadler faces the prospect of tearing down the store
and rebuilding. |
Just mention
Mother Mace when you step into the store, and Melody Mace
Knadler likely will smile for the rest of the week.
Knadler is
co-owner with her husband of Mace’s Store on Route 9, the one
place in town that is central to every local person’s life.
The woman whom
everyone called Mother Mace—Melody’s grandmother—made it that
way years ago. Customers today look on Mace’s Store the same way
that generations before them did.
Because in
Aurora, families go way back. And Knadler, 55, wouldn’t have it
any other way.
She grew up in
Amherst, the next-door town. Amherst shares Route 9 with Aurora
and, since 1971, the Airline Community School. The two towns are
intertwined, full of families that like to stay local. That’s
the reason why Knadler herself returned home after college in
Massachusetts.
“To live in
such a small town, in this time of our country’s history, to
have such tranquility and privacy, and to be surrounded by
family, is just wonderful,” she said.
More than just
the local shop where people buy gas, sodas, quick pick-up items,
the newspaper or even a hot sandwich, Mace’s Store has provided
many Aurora residents either their first job or something for
their later years. That community connection is important to the
Knadlers, who took over the store from Russell Mace, Melody’s
father, in 1971. But now comes the biggest change because soon
the entire store will relocate slightly. The widening of Route 9
means that Mace’s Store has to come down. Simply moving the
building not a possibility.
Public hearings
have been held about the road changes for the last three years,
and everyone has adjusted well, Knadler said.
“It’s not bad,”
Knadler said of the prospect. “And progress has to come. It will
actually be nicer for some of the people who live along the old
Route 9. They won’t have those trucks going by every day.”
Mace’s Store
started in 1851. The second owner, Ansel Mace, worked it from
1855 to 1915. Then it fell to A. Russell Mace, Melody’s
grandfather. He served in the Maine Legislature in 1934 and
continued to work in Augusta for the Farmers Home Administration
until 1967 when he left the store in the hands of his wife.
That’s how
Mother Mace, whose real name was Gladyce T. Mace, came to
preside there for years. She also raised nine children, all
while serving as town clerk, too.
When the
Knadlers expanded the store in 1982, creating a cement-floor
area that is distinct from the original wood floor part, they
put up a plaque in honor of Mother Mace.
Mother Mace
died 20 years ago, when Knadler was 35.
“She was a
wonderful woman, and I often discuss her,” Knadler said. “She
was such an important part of our town. It gives us great
pleasure when people remember her.”
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