Help Us Tell The Story of the Pink Cone
Can you help the Traveling 219 Project tell the story of the pink cone of Pocahontas County, which sits just off US 219 on Elk Mountain? When it was first built more than 75 years ago, it was an ice cream stand, located on the corner of 4th Ave. and Main Street in Marlinton, where Central Service used to be. It was here that Mason May sold ice cream in what was Marlinton’s first Tastee-Freeze. By the 40s, it was used to store oil and other lubricants for the service station.
The Pink Tepee at its current location on Elk Mountain. Photo by Roxy Todd.
In the 1950s, it became a playhouse for the McClure kids on 10th Avenue. When they grew up, the cone moved to Brownsburg Road with the McChesneys. We’ve heard at least one account that Eliot McChesney lived inside the cone, heating it with a wood stove.
Then in 1970,Henry Hefner bought the cone, painted it pink, and moved it to its current location on Elk Mountain.
1994: The Griffons purchase the Hefner property on top of Elk Mountain, including the Pink Tepee.
It you have any memories of the upside down ice cream cone, or tepee, or whatever you call it, we’d like to hear from you. Please contact the Traveling 219 Project on our Facebook page or call Gibbs Kinderman 302-799-6004.
Special thanks to Alice Rogers McClure, Keith Moore, Alfred and Freddie Hammons, Freida Jackson, Nikki Felton, Mike Hefner, and Jaynell Graham of The Pocahontas Times.
Category: Blog
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