Mackinson's Restaurant in Marshallton

Mackinson's Restaurant

Over the years I've used many, many words on this blog (admittedly, sometimes too many), but one that I'd wager has been used infrequently is "restaurant" (and not just because I can't spell it). This is because (and I'm not a trained historian, but it seems to me that) restaurants as we think of them today didn't often exist outside of cities and towns prior to the 20th Century. Yes, there were plenty of taverns and inns where you could go and get a meal, but the food was secondary to other pursuits and functions (like sleep and drink). However, in the second decade of the "American Century" an actual restaurant did open in the small, mill village of Marshallton, with a story that still leaves me with as many questions as answers.

The venture seems to have begun in 1917 with Isaac "Ike" Mackinson, Jr., a native of North East, MD. His father, Isaac, Sr., grew up in York County, PA, the son of an iron worker. Isaac moved to Maryland in the 1860's to do the same, but by the mid-1880's was running a saloon in North East. Isaac ran into more than a few problems in the small, Maryland town, mostly of his own doing. He was cited numerous times, and even jailed, for violating the local option law (regulating liquor sales), and also got himself into several altercations (once he beat up a reporter).

(The name is variously spelled "Mackison" or "Mackinson" -- Isaac seemed to prefer the former, while his son usually went by the later. I was told by a descendent that "Mackinson" was the "correct" spelling, so that's what I'll use.)

1912 Marshallton Baseball Club.
Manager Ike Mackinson (back row, right)

In about 1891, the Mackinsons (Isaac, wife Mary, children Ella and Ike) moved to Marshallton, where Isaac went back to his old profession and took a job at the Marshallton Iron Works. Young Ike worked in the mill as well, staying on after his father's death in 1906, and after the transition from iron works to the fibre mill. Ike Mackinson was very much involved and active in his adopted community -- he was an active member of St. Barnabas' Episcopal Church, he was both a player and a manager of the Marshallton baseball team, and he was active in local Republican politics. He also seems to have inherited his father's outgoing and, um, expressive personality. He was described (more than once) as the baseball team's "fiery manager". 

Earliest mention I've found
of Mackinson's Restaurant

By the mid-1910's, it seems like Ike was looking to get himself out of the mill and into a new line of work. In 1917 he bought from Alonzo and Rena Newlin the property on the southwest corner of Newport Road and Red Clay Creek (he actually bought a half share of it in 1917 and the remainder the following year). I'm not sure if there were any structures there at that point, but if not, there were soon. The first reference to a restaurant that I can find is in October 1917, when the Marshallton Coon Club had their feast there after a hunt. However, in 1916 Mackinson is listed as having a license under the category of "Pool and Billiard Tables, Shuffleboard and Bowling Alley". This seems to imply that he had an entertainment establishment going before he started the restaurant proper.

Isaac J. "Ike" Mackinson, Jr.

As best as I can tell, Mackinson operated his establishment for about 10 years, although I'm not sure what it entailed at any given time. There was definitely a restaurant early, but it's also referred to as an ice cream parlor. They may have been the same thing. Later there's mention of Ike being a shopkeeper and having a store. Whether he changed from a restaurateur to shopkeeper or did both for a time is unclear. His tenure there does seem to have come to a close in 1926, when the property was sold to George J. McVey.

The Mackinsons remained in Marshallton for the next few years, with Ike taking the position of a state Game Warden. This job seemed to be mostly enforcing dog and fishing laws, and Ike resigned his position in 1930. About that time or just after, the family moved to Christiana Hundred, where Ike was a Deputy Sheriff, worked as a game keeper (for the Vicmead Hunt Club, and later as an antiques dealer (working for Junius Simpson Dean). Isaac Jacob Mackinson, Jr. passed away in June 1966, followed two years later by his wife of 59 years.

c.1901 photo of the new bridge over Red Clay Creek. Neither of the
Mackinson buildings are present at that time

But back to Marshallton in 1926, the new owner of the restaurant/store was George J. McVey (a Great War veteran). I can find very little regarding the McVeys and the restaurant, except that they may have only run it for a few years. Honestly, all the references to "McVey's Restaurant" from 1927 until 1930 have to do with sheriffs' sales taking place there. George J. grew up in his father George B.'s house on New Street in Marshallton, worked in the fibre mill, and in 1928 married Nellie Peoples. She was the daughter of William and Laura Peoples, whose farm was at Newport Gap Pike and Graves Road. By 1930, George and Nellie were living with her mother in the Cedars, and George was likely working on the Peoples Farm.

Although he had moved out of Marshallton, McVey still owned the property until 1937, when he sold it to Wilmer Doughten. The Doughtens did live there, and still owned the land until at least the early 1960's. Now we get to what has been to me, a surprisingly confusing aspect of this story -- what was actually on the property. The lot (which, in case this wasn't clear earlier, is on the left side of Newport Road just before the Red Clay Creek bridge, if you're coming from Old Capitol Trail heading up towards Kirkwood Highway) is, and has been for most peoples' memory, and empty lot. But during the Mackinson-McVey-Doughten Era, there were two structures on this little sliver of land beside the creek.

The restaurant area c.1947. Newport Rd. crossing Red Clay Creek,
 with Greenbank Rd. to the right

This whole post came about because only recently did I have any sort of decent photo of what was there, although I knew about it even as far back as the post 15 years ago detailing the reminiscences of Anna Mae Hedrick. As you can see in the close-up of the c.1947 aerial above, there are two buildings -- one larger one and one smaller one closer to the creek. I knew that these had various functions over the years -- restaurant, ice cream parlor, dance hall, store, post office, and finally apartments -- but it wasn't always clear what was where. I had assumed that the larger building was the restaurant, and the smaller one the post office and/or store, but now I'm not so sure. 

.

The site in ruins after the March 1962 fire. 1912-1914 Newport Road
was the larger building, while 1918 was the smaller one

Some of the information comes from the end of their story, when they both buildings were fatally damaged in a March 1962 fire. The newspaper report of the blaze said that, "The larger building was formerly the Marshallton Post Office during the Woodrow Wilson Administration" and that, "The smaller one was once a grocery store." The Postmasters mostly came from the Mullins family, and it seems the restaurant/ice cream parlor was all but forgotten.

There's another article about Marshallton from 1974 that gives us some more information. It states that Mackinson had a store where, "He sold everything from ice cream to a game of pool. On Fridays in the winter he'd get in barrels of oysters -- they'd keep in the deep snow-- and sell them fried or stewed to townspeople." It goes on to say that sometimes he'd venture out to Limestone Road and sell his oysters to hungry farmers there. We can be fairly confident in the accuracy of this information, because the reporter was speaking with longtime Marshallton resident Mrs. A. York Smith, who happens to have been the former Miss Ella Mackinson -- one of Ike's daughters.

Photo of the flooding of Marshallton in 1938. The restaurant,
with Coca-Cola sign, can be seen in the background

So, Ike had a "store", but he would sell fried or stewed oysters -- that sounds more like a restaurant to me. I feel like maybe the line between the two was a bit less clear then, than it is now. Perhaps it started more as a gaming hall (maybe in the larger building?), then became more of a restaurant (in the smaller?). All signs (including the neon one seen in the 1938 flood photo above) point to the smaller building as being the commercial structure, which leads me to wonder if the larger one was just built as apartments. The Post Office could well have been run out of a residence.

Eventually both buildings were turned into apartments (four in the larger, two in the smaller), of which only one was occupied at the time of the 1962 fire (the three occupants got out safely). It appears that both structures were razed soon after the fire, and the lot has been vacant ever since. I still have many questions about these two buildings and their uses -- and I'll keep on investigating -- but these new photos at least give us a better visual idea of what these early 20th Century Marshallton buildings were like (at least from the outside).