By Bill Pumford, Image from the Russ Keller Collection
TITLE: RIM-O-THE-WORLD STORE: Rim of the World Store was located off Waters Drive in the area once known as Rim-o-the-World Park which has since become Valley of Enchantment (VOE). This store changed owners more often over the years than the price of gasoline in Southern California. The original store was established in the mid 1930s and one of the earliest managers was Tom Moore. In the late 1930s and early 1940s the store was operated by Archie Morton Crawford. This week’s image shows the Crawford store with the distinctive two trees holding up the sign for the store with any additional advertisements required by the owner. Nearly all the store owners/managers used the same trees for the store sign. In 1943 the equipment and store were sold to Kenneth Rogers and his wife Tilly. In the photo the market was always the building on the right. The building on the left served a variety of purposes over the decades. When the Rogers acquired the property the building next to the market became a café. During the Moore’s ownership the building acted as a laundry. The store enjoyed a couple of other names over the years, namely Hildebrant’s and the Enchanted Village Market. When Archie Crawford left the Rim of the World store, he went on to a number of other service-related jobs such as the chef at Skyland Lodge in 1948, the chef at Jerry’s in Crestline in 1949, the chef/host at the Town Hall in Crestline in 1951, and the job from which he retired – the chef at the Stockade. Quite the resume. The building on the left was last used as a real estate office in the early 1990s. Both buildings were just west of the current VOE Post Office but no longer exist.