This was the home of Captain Peter Galloway, Sr. (1814-1893) and Lurinda Galloway, his second wife, and may have been built by them. It is on the southwest corner of South Washington and Lewis Streets and the land stretched along Lewis Street to Lodge Lane. (The property is also known by the mailing address of 600 South Washington Street.) The Captain’s funeral proceeded from his residence here in 1893 and Lurinda also died before the year’s end. Her executor sold the home in 1894 to Martha Jeanette Scarff “Nettie” Kelly whose husband was Edgar C. Kelly (1855-1937) and they made this their home.

The Whistle Bottling Company was begun in 1907 by Edgar Kelly and housed in a building at the foot of their garden at Lodge Lane. It was the first beverage bottling company in Havre de Grace and is shown on the 1910 Sanborn Insurance Map with a “buggy shed” behind it. The Beverage Journal, Vol.58, April 1922, announced, “The Whistle Bottling Company of HdG has just added a beautiful large Autocar to their delivery equipment. This makes three trucks for Mr. E.C. Kelly, the owner.” A photo shows a sign saying, “Thirsty? Just Whistle.” The Company was later renamed Kelly Beverage Company and Edgar’s son, William Scarff Kelly (1887-1967), later joined his father in the business. William Kelly also served as Postmaster of Havre de Grace from 1920 to 1924.

The company produced carbonated beverages including Cherry Blossoms, Root Beer, and Orange Squeeze with the help of a "Dixie No.2" machine made by the Crown Cork and Seal Company and shipped to them in 1920. William Painter of Baltimore founded Crown Cork and Seal in 1892 after he was awarded a patent for his idea to insert a disc of cork into a small piece of tin with a corrugated rim or “skirt.” Edgar Kelly was elected to the Board of Directors of the new “Maryland Bottlers of Carbonated Beverages” at their 1921 meeting in Baltimore.

Edgar Kelly had a sister named Anna W. Kelly (1858-1895) who in 1881 made an important donation to the newly formed Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. She heard that the institution was gathering specimens of thoroughbred dogs, so when her beautiful Italian greyhound named “Don” died, she had his remains delivered to them. Her gift was recorded in the Smithsonian’s 1881 Annual Report and she received a letter of thanks from Professor Spencer Fullerton Baird (1823-1887), the Smithsonian’s first Curator, saying that Don had been sent to the taxidermist. A search for Don in the Smithsonian has not been conducted.

Edgar’s wife, Nettie, died in 1924, leaving Edgar with four children, William S. Kelly, Cornelia M. Leffler, Russell Kelly, and Carrie A. Fairlamb. When Edgar died in 1937, Carrie and her husband R. Crosby Fairlamb bought this house and she and her brother William Kelly took over the business and incorporated it. The business continued to run into the late 1950s. In 1953 they advertised that they were established in 1907 and sold Pepsi-Cola; Kayo; Chocolate; Orange Squeeze, Cherry Blossoms and other carbonated beverages.

Kay Pearson Keetley says her Uncle Arthur (Pone) Johnson at about age 22 was “head mixer” at the plant. When he retired from the Kelly Beverage Company he went to work for Coca-Cola on Juniata Street. And William R. Pyle says his Dad (Bill Pyle) worked at Kelly’s from the 1920s; others were Wes Gibson, Eddie Jackson, Pete Mitchell, and Rodger Lindsay. in the 1940s.

Carrie Fairlamb’s husband, Crosby, died in 1938 so she rented rooms in her house to schoolteachers during the school year. Carrie had another sister, named Cecilia Kelly Leffler, who had a small store at 517 South Washington Street that was later demolished to create a hospital parking lot. Kay Pearson Keetley says she loved going to this home as a child—she would have lunch with Judy Johnson Tegler at “Aunt Carrie’s” and then go up the street to “Mrs. Leffler’s” for ice cream.

When Carrie Fairlamb died in 1965 she bequeathed this property jointly to her niece, Jeanette Leffler Johnston, and her nephew Mervin Gordon Leffler, children of Cornelia Leffler. The Johnstons, however, sold their share to Mervin and Leola Leffler in 1966. One year later the Lefflers sold the property to Glenn A. Downin, Jr. (1916-2002) and Thelma K. Downin. The rear area of this property (where the beverage company building was) facing Lodge Lane may already have been sold to the Harford Memorial Hospital as a parking lot, as it continues to be, and the lovely garden of Carrie Fairlamb is now paved over.

In 1975, Dr. Ian D. Somerville and Sally L. Somerville, his wife, bought this property and may have made some of the additions to the building. Dr. Somerville continues to own this property with his current wife, Jacqueline J. Somerville.

This building has two entrances and two addresses, one being 600 South Washington Street (facing east on Washington Street) and the other is 400 Lewis Street, which is the side entrance of the same building. The Lewis Street entrance is now the office of Bellezza Wellness Center with Dr. Danielle Bellezza, and is also the home of the Norkris Foundation.

Harford County land records are maintained, however, as 400-402 Lewis Street for both properties.

County Records
Built 1920. 3572 sq ft, commercial, 2 stories with basement, 2.5 baths, 6900 sq ft lot.