'The Little Shop' - Second studio at the Hiram Woodward Place
Photo by F. Earl Williams

     One of the small studios of Robert Strong Woodward came to be known as 'The Little Shop'.  This building is a quarter-mile northwest of the Hiram Woodward place. It was a one-story building standing just beside Clark Brook in Buckland before that smaller stream  enters the Clesson Brook.  At one time in the distant past it had been  a mill or shop of some sort but the first Buckland History book does not mention it.    A small brooklet, an off-shoot of Clark Brook, ran directly under the building through the cellar area (of which more below).  Information from Mrs. Florence Haeberle in 1984 relates that this building was probably built about 1812 and was used by various owners to make small tools, knives, razors and cider.  It was, in those early days,  known as Boehmer’s Mill and was powered by the Clark Brook.  

From The History of Buckland , Massachusetts, Bicentennial Edition

   According to the second Buckland History by Beulah Cross, "Frederick Louis Boehmer, came to this country and was the first German to live in Greenfield.  His stay there was of short duration, then he moved to Buckland, lived in a house near the twin bridges where underneath his home in a basement, he had a work shop.  Here he made very fine surgical instruments for a Dr. Morse of New York City.  Later he bought and lived in the 'lightning splitter' and in a shop across the road  he made scissors, knives of all kinds and razors.   Many of these old razors and pocket knives are still in use in this section.  A knife or razor made by F. L. Boehmer was always regarded as containing a very high grade of steel.  The Little Shop was kept up by RSW until his death when it was willed to his cousins, Robert and Ann Haeberle.  Subsequently it became an antique shop run by their mother Florence Haeberle.  Years later it was purchased by Mildred March who rebuilt it into a nice little home with new windows, modern plumbing and insulation. 

 The pictures below show the evolution of this picturesque old building. 

A rear view of the 'Little Shop' as it appeared before it underwent reconstruction into a home

Photo by F. Earl Williams       
          See The Book Corner

Photo by F. Earl Williams

On the back of the "Little Shop" property is located a pond holding back waters from Clark Brook by this pictured dam and spillway.  The overflow was the water source for the mill power for the Boehme'rs Mill as well as, in later years, for the continuous flush toilet in the bottom of the "Little Shop."

Photo by F. Earl Williams   

 
‘The Little Shop’ as it appears today across from the Buckland Recreational Area on Route 112 in Buckland

. Link to Dr. Mark Purinton's memories of 'The Little Shop'