Building history:
Frowine's Appliances
Frowine's Appliances & Hardware 
Frowine's Fuel Oil 

Frowine's Appliances
6470 Swauger Valley Road
Now Frowine's Hardware & Appliances

Owners:  Charles & Beulah Frowine
Followed by:
Year started:  1950
Year ended: 

The Portsmouth Times, February 11, 1957

Minford Has Flood

For many years Minford has not experienced a flood but at least two of its business places did Saturday night.

Frowine’s Appliances and Erwin-Dodson Funeral Home are on a side street with the rear of the property not far from Long Run.

Flooded Long Run was more than a foot deep in the basement of the Frowine store but heavy appliances in storage were saved by placing them on buckets of paint.  The most damage was to loss of labels on paint.

Next door at the funeral home, drains were blocked with sand bags but other seepage accounted for about eight inches of water on the basement floor.  The flood at the rear was within a foot of the back door.

Market Gets Water

Greatest damage from Long Run was between Oertel’s Corner and Minford.  Route 139 Market, operated by L. H. Porter, had more than a foot of water with some property damage.

At the John Oliver Insurance office, built only recently of block construction on the north side of the highway, had about two feet of water.

The Portsmouth Times, March 27, 1971 - Frowine Grows in Minford Area
Frowine Hardware & Appliance of Minford was started in 1950 by Charles Frowine.

Frowine began with a small line of hardware and sold bottled gas.  He later added a major appliance line, handling one fo the best known names in the industry.

The first building was 21 x 51 and one other person was employed there.  The building is more than five times as large as it was when the company started and the merchandise line has been greatly expanded.

Frowing retired in 1967 and Beulah Frowine now owns the business, which is managed by Charles M. Jarvis.

The store carries a complete line of paint, hardware, tools, plumbing and electrical supplies, lawn and garden items, appliances and heating stoves.  Artificial flowers and floral arrangements is a new service of the store.

The Frowing Fuel Oil and Frowine Hardware Appliance firms merged into one company in 1968 and Jarvis manages both divisions.  Four people are employed there.

Frowine is a member of the Hardware Wholesalersin Inc. chain and buys its merchandise from a dealer-owned warehouse in Fort Wayne, Indiana. 

Above photo, 2004