store – Page 3 – Building a better South

February 1, 2014

Historic store, Sniders, S.C.

This historic store on U.S. Highway 21 about 10 miles west of Walterboro, S.C., was closed in January 2014, even though it looks well-kept and like it had been open recently. Look closely and you can see a cat in front of the gray doors.

It’s harder and harder to find country stores like this that are open today. Once as ubiquitous as mules, they’re dying out as more people move from rural areas to larger cities.

Walterboro, which has lost about 100 people since 2010, has a population of 5,309 people. 38 percent of whom live in poverty. Walterboro is the county seat of Colleton County, a Southern Crescent county split by Interstate 95.

Colleton County, which also has a small piece of coastline, is home to 38,153 people, 21 percent of whom live at or below the federal poverty level.

Quickfacts on Colleton County from the U.S. Census Bureau.

January 16, 2014November 16, 2014

Well driller, Emmalane, Ga.

Hand-painted sign on old store, Emmalane, Ga.

VanishingSouthGeorgia.com photographer Brian Brown likes the hand-painted sign on this door of this old building in Emmalane, about four miles southwest of Millen, Ga.: “L.P. Mons, Well Driller.”

“There are lots of cotton farms in this area off the Old Savannah Highway south of Millen. In fact, the oldest cotton farm in America (Juanita M. Joiner Farm) and the oldest timberland company (Southern Woodland Company) are operated by the 8th generation of the family on lands dating to 1783.This relic, located in the vicinity of the farm, probably served the now-forgotten community of Emmalane as a general store or commissary.”

Jenkins County, whose county seat is Millen, was home to 9,213 people, according to the U.S. Census in 2012, an increase of 10 percent from two years earlier. Almost 30 percent of residents live in poverty.

December 28, 2013

Roadside store, Trio, S.C.

This old store in Trio, S.C., is across the street from the former Bank of Trio. Retired editor and photographer Linda W. Brown of nearby Kingstree says it’s “just another example of how once thriving country stores have fallen victim to our greater mobility.”

Trio (pronounced Try-o) was once a thriving community in southern Williamsburg County founded by the three Bryan brothers, writes Brown. The area’s main industries were lumber, turpentine and agriculture.

“The Bank of Trio is long gone, but the building still remains as a reminder of more prosperous days,” she says.

Just under 34,000 people live in Williamsburg County, which is about the number who lived there in 1900, according to Census figures. Population peaked in 1950 at 43,807, but has dropped slowly since then.

About two-thirds of county residents are black, with almost all of those remaining being white. Only 2 percent of those in the county are of Hispanic descent. Some 32.8 percent of residents live in poverty, according to the Census. Of the county’s 1,921 firms, 36.5 percent are black-owned — a percentage that is three times South Carolina’s average.

September 11, 2013September 11, 2013

Quick Stop, closed, near Waverly, Va.

Davalier Quick Stop, west of Waverly, Va. Photo by Andy Brack. — Cavalier Quick Stop, west of Waverly, Va. Photo by Andy Brack.

It doesn’t take long while driving the rural roads of the Southern Crescent to encounter an old country store or joint like the Cavalier Quick Stop about four miles northwest of Waverly, Va., off U.S. Highway 460.

Waverly, which had 2,149 residents in 2010 (160 fewer than 10 years earlier), is in rural Sussex County, a heartland of Virginia’s famous peanuts. Sussex County, which had more than 20 percent of people living in poverty in 2000, has some 15.6 percent of people in poverty as of the 2010 Census. About 60 percent of the county’s residents are black.

August 22, 2013November 16, 2014

Melton store, Allentown, Ga.

13.0822_ga_meltonstore — Melton Store, Allentown, Ga.

From Better South President Andy Brack:

My Great Uncle Gordon Brack used to be a clerk in this store in Allentown in rural Wilkinson County, Georgia, where my father was a boy. Thanks to Brian Brown of the Vanishing South Georgia project for letting us republish the photo.

My dad, Elliott Brack, recalls the store in the 1940s:

“We used to buy soft drinks for five cents out of a cooler chilled by ice, pulling the drinks out of the cold water. If we had another nickel, we would buy peanuts and pour them into the Coke or RC or Pepsi for added pleasure.”

Dad says the store had a butcher and a meat market. “Items were on shelves and you told them you wanted something and the counterman reached up and got it. No self-self service much. They were general merchandise, which meant they sold feed and overalls too.”

Brown notes in his post about the store that Allentown is known for being at the intersection of four Georgia counties, although it mostly is in Wilkinson County.

Today, Wilkinson County has fewer people (9,577 in the 2012 Census estimate) than it did in the 1940s (11,025 people) when my dad was a boy here before moving to the “big city” of Macon with his family. About three in five people are white, with most of the rest being black. Poverty is about 20 percent.

More from QuickFacts from the U.S. Census.
More from Wikipedia.

August 16, 2013August 18, 2013

Old store, Salters, S.C.

Moseley store, Salters, S.C. Photo by Linda W. Brown.

Salters is an unincorporated small community in southwestern Williamsburg County, South Carolina. Former editor Linda W. Brown writes that the residents, who like to call themselves “Saltines,” love their community and many fight hard to keep out landfills or growth of a current one.

“Visiting Salters for me is like stepping back in time to an era when people spent the afternoons sitting on their front porches watching the trains go by,” she writes.

Years back, you could easily watch trains go by from the front of this store pictured above. It’s the old C.E. Moseley Store and remains in the Moseley family. “I’m not sure when it was built, but it was open until 1943 when the Moseleys moved across the railroad tracks to a larger building,” which operated until the late 1980s.

Williamsburg County, located in the middle of the Southern Crescent, is about 75 miles north of Charleston, S.C. Just under 34,000 people live in the county, which is about the number who lived there in 1900, according to Census figures. Population peaked in 1950 at 43,807, but has dropped slowly since then.

Williamsburg County on Wikipedia.

QuickFacts from the U.S. Census.

August 2, 2013July 31, 2013

Close-up of old store, Ebony, Va.

Neat sign on old store, Ebony, Va. Photo by Andy Brack.

Above is a close-up of the neat sign on an old store from Ebony, Va., pictured here on July 31. [See that post.]

Ebony is in rural Brunswick County, which is a farming area on the North Carolina border with more than 17,000 residents. Like most Southern Crescent counties, poverty exceeds 20 percent.

More on Brunswick County from Wikipedia.

QuickFacts from the U.S. Census.

July 31, 2013July 31, 2013

Old store, Ebony, Va.

This empty, old store in Ebony, Va., is one of the favorite buildings we’ve spotted recently in our rambles around the Southern Crescent. Perhaps one reason is how the sign above the door has faded to reveal an upside-down word, “sandwiches.” Something else was painted over it years back, but this is what’s left now.

The way we hear it from folks in Ebony, the rural village in Brunswick County once was known as the Prospect area. But when it had grown enough to get a post office, the postal authorities said they couldn’t name it “Prospect” because there already was a post office with that name in Virginia. So one of the town elders figured that if they couldn’t name it “Prospect,” they might as well name it after a great old black horse he had in his pasture named (you guessed it) “Ebony.”

Brunswick County is a farming area on the North Carolina border with more than 17,000 residents. Like most Southern Crescent counties, poverty exceeds 20 percent.

More on Brunswick County from Wikipedia.

QuickFacts from the U.S. Census.

July 3, 2013July 13, 2013

Old stores, Mount Vernon, Ga.

These two old buildings on Church Street in downtown Mount Vernon, Ga., caught the eye of photographer Michael Kaynard. Both seem to be old stores. the left of which seems to be re-purposed as a hair salon. The right one appeared empty.

Kaynard observed that people in Montgomery County seemed proud of the renovation of the county courthouse, which was nearby. But in the square around the courthouse, there weren’t many active businesses. “I spoke with a young woman in city hall and two of the businesses I asked about had been closed since before she arrived there” several years back, he said.

Georgia photographer Brian Brown of VanishingSouthGeorgia.com also enjoy these two Church Street buildings, saying here that they’re his two favorites in Mount Vernon.

See more of Brown’s photos of Mount Vernon and Montgomery County.

These days, Montgomery County and the area around Mount Vernon seem strapped, but interestingly, the population is about 50 percent bigger than it was in the late 1960s when Brack visited. In 2012, the estimated population was just under 9,000 — some 3,000 more people than in the 1970 Census. More.

Some 21.6 percent of people in the county live at or below the federal poverty level.