Visit 219 Chestnut Street in downtown Meadville today and the rear of the building looks like any restored old building in any old area of downtown.
My great great grandfather Nathan Smith's clothing store, Smith Brothers, used to be here, but you wouldn't know it today. The restoration is clean and, clearly, will give a longer life to the place. But it's left it non-descript.
It used to be a memory magnet, of sorts, to my Smith family relatives in Meadville though. Now that's gone.
Thankfully, we know how it used to look.
My Dad drove through and snapped this photo in 2001.
And the head of the Crawford County Historical Society shared this one taken in 1917. Her sister married into our Smith family.
Memory preserved.
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