Drummers’ House
R.B. Horn built this house to replace one that burned in 1914. It served as a boarding house
for traveling salesmen. Locally known as the Drummers’ House since the salesmen were trying
to drum up business. Recently, the Drummer house was a Bed and Breakfast.
Photo by Town of East Bend
Davis Brothers’ Store
A two story brick building which was built in 1914, and housed the H.E. Davis Store now houses Kitchen Roselli. The store sold groceries, overalls, dry good materials, notions, shoes, tin wares, harnesses, and "molasses from the barrel." Dr. Rosebud Morse Garriott, a female dentist, occupied part of the second story for her dental practice for many years. Davis operated the store until 1956.
Photo by Town of East Bend
Wilhelm-Smitherman Roller Mill
The Wilhelm-Smitherman Roller Mill operated in East Bend from about 1910 until the 1960s. The mill’s builder has not been positively identified. However, family tradition holds that is was built by Ezekial Wilhelm (1858-1924). Wilhelm appears in the 1916 edition of the North Carolina Yearbook and Business Directory as the operator of a roller mill, but as early as 1910 the “East Bend Roller Mill” was in operation. Whether they are one and the same is not yet established. Wilhelm did, however, operate this mill and later sold it to his nephew Henry Martin Wilhelm (1876-1963) and Al Smitherman. About 1920 Wilhelm installed the diesel engine which powered the mill until its closure. Wilhelm is thought to have operated the mill until his death. The Smitherman family owned the mill until it was sold to John and Barbara Norman who in turn sold it to the town of East Bend.
The building is two stories in height and three bays wide. It has a partially enclosed loading platform on its front (south) elevation and enclosed sheds along the west and north elevations.
The second floor contains storage bins and the three roller mills served by the elaborate system of wooden elevators and chutes which transfer the grain to various stages of the milling process. The attic story contains wooden bins and a cluster of elevator shafts. The sifters which remain were made by the Wolf Company of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. Much of the operational equipment has been removed.
