Corn shops, including Leeds’, topic of Oct. 23 presentation

PHOTO: An early photo of workers husking corn at the Leeds corn shop in Leeds Center. (Leeds Historical Society photo)

LEEDS – Paul Frederic will present a program on Maine’s corn shops, hosting by the Leeds Historical Society, at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 23, in the Leeds Community Church gym, 123 Church Hill Road.
Frederic, a professor emeritus of Geography at the University of Maine at Farmington, is the product of a corn shop town, a hamlet or city whose existence was once centered around a canning factory. Frederic brings not only academic expertise, but also personal, hands-on experience, and is the author of “Canning Gold: Northern New England’s Sweet Corn Industry: A Historical Geography..”
Along with hearing Frederic’s description of the canning shops in general, there will be an opportunity to look at old photographs of Leeds’ corn shop, which operated in Leeds Center into the 1960s. There are still members of the Leeds community who remember the corn shop. Some remember their mothers working there to earn money to buy their children’s school clothes. Others remember hours of hoeing rows of corn or beans their families grew for the shop.
Anyone with photos or memories of Leeds’ corn ship is welcome to share them at the presentation.
Refreshments will be served. The presentation is free and open to the public, but a suggested donation of $5 is asked to help fund historical society programs.