TOWNSEND, Tenn. — One new local business is tapping into Townsend's history. Founded in the early 1900s, the Townsend Mercantile Company was one of the first stores built around the Little River Railroad and Lumber Company.
Back then, the store housed just about anything you'd want to buy, from horseshoes to meat and bread. Now one local business owner is fulfilling her lifelong dreams of becoming an entrepreneur while restoring the nostalgia with a new shop that models the original Mercantile Co.
From horseshoes and fitted leather to candy and soda pop, inside the original shop, local historian Don Headrick said you could find the heart of Townsend.
"It was the center of town. It had the post office in the building also," Headrick said. "You could get a little brown bag of candy for a nickel. You would ask the clerk to give you a Duke's mixture and he would give you just about a little bit of everything.”
He is an expert on Townsend's history, but especially the mercantile because he was there.
"Money was pretty scarce back then but I remember going in and buying a NeHi Orange Soda," he said. "You would be paid in "Dugaloo" which was scrip provided by the lumbering operation and that was the only place you could spend your money."
The store thrived until the 1950s when it closed its doors, Headrick said. It was eventually torn down in the 1960s.
"It was sad they'd done away with it," Headrick said.
But that is about to change as one local businesswoman set her sights on restoring it. Brooke Webb's family has deep roots in Townsend. Her father-in-law remembers the original store like it was yesterday.
"I've always loved home decor and shopping and things like that. Stepped out on a leap of faith and was like we're going to open up a store, so we thought of Townsend Mercantile Company," Webb said. "That made me dig deep into what was the original Townsend Mercantile... What did they carry, and try to seek out information."
After combing through scarce Google searches, she said, she turned to those who knew it best: a pair of sisters in their 90s.
"Both sisters were here unexpectedly and kind of gave me so much history about what the company store was before," Webb said.
Barbara Handley and Shirley Heatherly are the daughters of Stuart McNeil, who played a significant role in the town's lumbering operation. McNeil was the last superintendent of the Little River Lumber Company.
"She remembers candy being one of the things in the store when she was growing up,” Webb said. "The other sister said she remembers at Christmas there was this long table of toys.”
The new Townsend Mercantile Company is located on East Lamar Alexander Parkway -- just feet from the original.
"It's kind of crazy this has happened and it's kind of the same store as it was then it's just evolved into present-day what people buy today," Webb said.
Find more information on the store here.