Big Bear Farms
In 1961 Wayne Brown, founder of the Big Bear grocery chain, bought a nearly 2000-acre white-fenced farm on Powell Road west of where Sawmill Road ended at the time. Brown used it to raise cattle and crops to supply his stores. Eventually in the 1980’s the beautiful 140-year-old farmhouse and barn became a catering business and hosted many weddings and business events. Only the twin landmark silos of the Big Bear Farm remained after developers bought much of the land for a commercial center in the 1990’s, and a new Big Bear grocery store opened there in January 1998. This location, like all the remaining Big Bear Stores that were taken over by Penn Traffic, reopened in 2006 as the current Giant Eagle.
Aerial View of Big Bear Farms