About

Newtown Feed & Supply is located in the Historic Flag Spring Lodge built in 1900 by the Independent Order of Odd Fellows No. 152. The lot was purchased from the trustees of Gerald Lodge No. 428, Free and Accepted Masons, of Newtown, OH.

The Flag Spring Lodge was used by multiple businesses over the years after the Odd Fellows relocated. After that it become a general store and butcher shop, Whitley’s Grocery, Ferris Hardware, and there is some evidence that at some point it was also a bank, post office and voting polling place. A bank and a post office have occupied the first floor, while women's clubs have the second.

The building has a rough sawn timber frame, wide plank Douglas fir sub boards, original stained-glass windows, and square cut nails which help to confirm the date it was built. However, any historical documentation on the building was lost in the 1937 flood where the water made it to the traffic light out front on Main Street.

In the 1960’s the building finally became a feed store and the Champlin's have continued this legacy to this day. In 2007, when the Champlin's learned the former owners were going to close the feed store, they decided to take on the project as a family. While Jeanie and Rob both had full-time jobs, their son, Chase, had just graduated from college and agreed to run the day-to-day operations if the family took on the massive restoration project. By this point, the old building, despite its great bones, was suffering from severe neglect. There was no heat, no insulation, the pipes were frozen, it had shoddy electrical service and paint was peeling everywhere. Rob took some time off from his restoration business (Chase Creek
Restorations) to start repairing the most essential needs of the store. The Champlin family put in nights and weekends working on the construction, doing product research, locating vendors, stocking and refining product and determining the needs of the customers. While the historic building will continue to need updates, the Champlin's have made vast improvements to the space.