by Helen W. Smith
THE MAYLAND COMMUNITY
The latest exhibit at the Museum of special interest to me personally is the Carroll Layman Collection of Mayland memorabilia currently on display in the country store. Having grown up on a farm in the community, his collection of pictures brings back memories of trips to Bethel Church, Hillyards, and Phillips Stores, and my father and his friends who gathered there on a regular basis.
The community of Mayland is located about two and a half miles northeast of Broadway. In the 1800’s it was known as The Pines. By the 1870’s as more people settled in the community, it became known as “Newtown”. Finally, the name was changed to Mayland in honor of John May who in the 1890’s operated a store and Post Office in Newtown just south of the present store. According to a Recollection of Mayland by Florence Spitzer, the store was located in the Bruser (Berlin) Spitzer House along what is now Phillips Store Road.
In1905 there were two general stores in Mayland, Phillips General Store and Hilliard (Hillyard) General Merchandise. By the mid 1930’s, the C. F. Phillips Co. had built the Mayland Service Station and later a Barber Shop.
Hillyard and Phillips Stores
The community also included two churches, Bethel Church of the Brethren and Mayland Christian, an elementary school (originally called Newtown School No. 3, later Mayland School), a post office, a switchboard, a shoe repair shop, and a chair-making shop. It even had its own Community Band.
Do not miss this free exhibit which will be on display through December 2025.
