by Stewart Lytle
IPSWICH – On the market is a small slice of this town’s colorful history that could remain a mixed-use property with a commercial kitchen with a two-bedroom, second-floor residence. Or the 2,419-square-foot building could be converted to full residential.
Listed by Frank Bertolino with the North Shore Realty Group at $975,000, the Little River Store sits on a large, 5,800 square foot lot.
The Little River Store at 57 East St. was opened in 1922 a few yards from the town boat dock on the Ipswich River by local legend Edgar I. (E.I.) Holland. He operated it as the Ipswich River Grocery Store, selling provisions to the neighborhood in a day when such small grocery stores were a staple in most New England neighborhoods.
The building, built originally in 1909, has been a part of this quaint neighborhood not far from downtown for more than a century. It operated for years as Alice’s, whose proprietor sold penny candies from a glass case at the front of the store. More recently, customers remember buying homemade muffins and specialty cookies from the same case.
Alice was a local character, described by those who knew her as having long hair, a raspy voice and rarely being without a cigarette dangling from her lips.
The store became Jules Kitchen, who turned out culinary delights in its first-floor commercial kitchen. Upstairs the two-bedroom apartment has a large living room, a private entrance and views of the river.
A few months before the Covid Pandemic hit Vernon and Sandy Bell, the owners of the successful Platinum Pools, bought the property that includes a 342-square-foot shed which once sold bait to fishermen on the river. Working with their son, Christopher Nicholas Bell, they called the store the Little River Store and once the Pandemic let up started expanding the store to make room for Sandy’s homemade sandwiches for the river traffic and the local neighbors.
Sandy called her customers her second family. “They always had my back,” she said. “And I had theirs.”
She would bring donuts to an elderly gentleman, who lived nearby. And when an elderly woman slipped out of her house to take herself shopping, against her daughter’s wishes, Sandy walked her home. At Christmas last year, she staged a contest for 12 children who lived nearby to make their own tree ornaments. Everyone got a gift certificate. And the winner, a father and his son, got to make the donuts for Christmas.
Several years ago, a house was torn down to make room for a 14-car parking lot.
Asked why they were selling the legendary property, Sandy Bell said she is missing seeing the customers and cooking. She would rise before 5 a.m. to turn on the ovens for the day’s baking, a habit she continues.
But she is needed by her husband and son at Platinum Pools, which grows bigger and more successful every year.
“I miss my second family,” she said. “I even miss burning my fingers.”
For a tour of the property, call North Shore Realty at 978-710-9388 or email at thenorthshorerealtygroup@gmail.com. ♦
