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What a difference a few decades make! The images of New York City were taken in 1970 (Bernard Gotfryd, Library of Congress) and in 2018 by Afif Ramdhasuma (from pexels.com). Earth Day has been celebrated on April 22 since it was established through grassroots efforts in 1970. It was a response to increasing concerns caused by smog (intense air pollution caused mainly by exhaust fumes), Great Lakes at risk of dying from pesticide runoff and waste dumping, and rivers that caught on fire (the Cuyahoga River in Ohio famously caught fire in June of 1969). It was also the year when monumental legislation was enacted to address all kinds of environmental concerns. ...read more
At Home | Inspiration
All
If it’s true, as they say, that seeing is believing, then we at Mast Store would like to propose another entry to your quip collection: Doing is moving. “Doing” not only requires movement - “doing” moves you both physically and emotionally. ...read more
Local Flavor | Mast Family Favorites | Travel
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What is a library? It’s a big building with lots of books in it. But wait, it’s so much more. The library is a gateway to your wildest dreams, a place to learn, a place to imagine, a place to make friends. Today’s libraries are repositories of books, but they also are places to get help to learn to read or improve your reading, to improve your math skills, to listen to a performance by a string quartet, to watch a movie, to refine your crafting skills, and to gather with fellow writers. Yes, libraries are SO much more. ...read more
Adventure | Inspiration | Mast Family Favorites
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... Our favorite foods! Food is universal because everybody’s got ta eat! And the last two months of the year are filled with more than their fair share of family meals, work gatherings, special outings to favorite restaurants, tins filled with homemade cookies and fudge, and the anticipation of food traditions handed down from generation to generation ...read more
At Home | Recipes
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Even before we bought the Mast General Store, we were taken by the beauty of Valle Crucis. We’ve heard people describe the drive out Broadstone Road as traveling through a time portal. In the 1970s, fields in the river bottoms would be filled with tobacco, cabbage, or high with hay to feed cattle that were grazing in the summer pasture. ...read more
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The lucky few who have seen the Earth from a different perspective – astronauts - all echo the same viewpoint upon their return. Yuri Gagarin, a Russian cosmonaut and the first human to go to space, commented, “Orbiting Earth in the spaceship, I saw how beautiful our planet is. People, let us preserve and increase this beauty, not destroy it.”
Behind the Scenes | Inspiration
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Roanoke has always been a gathering place since its days as Big Lick, when animals would gather to partake of nutrients found in naturally occurring salt licks. Hunters would also gather near the salt licks.
The area was surveyed by Joshua Fry and Peter Jefferson (Thomas Jefferson’s father) in the 1750s. Their map showing the Great Wagon Road from Philadelphia through Virginia to the Yadkin River was used by thousands of settlers in search of free or cheap land. Big Lick was a stop along the Great Wagon Road and was also where travelers could choose to follow a fork through Southwest Virginia that would come to be known as the Wilderness Road.
Travel and transportation are the catalyst for Roanoke’s growth. When the first rails bypassed Big Lick, the town moved to the rails. The early railways connected farmers to outside markets then eventually linked the mountains to larger cities, which were interested in the region’s coal deposits. In 1882, the city was renamed Roanoke, which is an Algonquin word for shell “money.” Railroads continued to grow, merge, and grow again. Norfolk and Western’s Roanoke Shops were famous for manufacturing steam locomotives. These iron horses were known industry wide for their excellence. As a result, the N & W was the last railroad to convert to diesel engines in the 1960s.
Railroads lead to huge population jumps. In fact, the city was growing so quickly that it took on the moniker “Magic City” for a time. The heart of the city is found in its center – it’s where business is done and people gather. The City Market was the foundation of Roanoke’s center. Established in 1884, farmers and makers gathered to respond to the city’s needs. In 1922, a larger more modern city market was constructed. It’s still a gathering place for local producers, artists, and restaurant goers.
The city’s second wave of growth sits on Jefferson Street. It’s where you’ll find the building that now houses the Mast General Store. Built as Thurman & Boone Furniture, its retail history is long and storied and includes businesses owned by two of the city’s most successful entrepreneurs.
The history of the building at 401 South Jefferson Street involves several of Roanoke’s titans of commerce. Such names as Boone, Thurman, and Lynn are well-known in the region for their business sense and contributions to the general upbuilding of the city. To provide perspective, let’s turn back the clock to the late 1800s. A group of men moved to Roanoke who would greatly impact and influence the retail history of the city and the region.
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The history of the building at 401 South Jefferson Street involves several of Roanoke’s titans of commerce. Such names as Boone, Thurman, and Lynn are well-known in the region for their business sense and contributions to the general upbuilding of the city. To provide perspective, let’s turn back the clock to the late 1800s. A group of men moved to Roanoke who would greatly impact and influence the retail history of the city and the region.
Stewart H. Heironimus and Lynn K. Brugh, both from Hagerstown, Maryland, established a dry goods store in 1890 called Heironimus & Brugh. It was a small affair with just over 3,100 square feet located on Commerce Street (now 2nd Street). By 1898, the store moved to a new location on Campbell Avenue and doubled its floor space. Just a few years later, ca. 1905, Brugh retired and Robert Lee Lynn purchased his shares, and the store’s name was shortened S.H. Heironimus. Around that same time, the company installed Roanoke’s first freight elevator. In 1913 when S. H. Heironimus retired, Lynn purchased the store and kept its good name. Edgar A. Thurman arrived in Roanoke in 1890 with little more than the clothes on his back and a keen business sense. He found his first success in the produce commission trade before establishing a furniture company on Campbell Avenue in 1893. It was known as Overstreet & Thurman, then Thurman, Overstreet, & Boone, and finally, in 1906, Thurman & Boone Co. Inc. At the time, it was the largest furniture house in Southwest Virginia, and to accommodate its growing inventory, Thurman built the Thurman & Boone Building at the corner of Jefferson Street and Campbell Avenue in 1915. The store carried complete lines of fine quality furniture, draperies, rugs, pianos, and stoves.
While Thurman & Boone Furniture was a large business, there was enough room for the S. H. Heironimus Store to share some square footage from 1915 until 1935. During that time, Heironimus used a cash trolley to send change back and forth from the wrap stand, where the customer was paying, to the central office on the mezzanine, where change would be made and then sent back. This system was a forerunner of the pneumatic tubes that functioned in much the same way and that are still in use at many bank drive-thrus today.
In 1935, feeling the need to expand and grow its inventory, S. H. Heironimus moved to the MacBain Building at the corner of Campbell Avenue and First Street. Thurman & Boone Furniture remained in the building until after the passing of Edgar Thurman in 1952. A lifelong bachelor, Thurman’s will, which cut out nieces, nephews, and long-time employees, was surprising and led to a hotly-contested court case. In the end, his wishes were upheld and the Edgar A. Thurman Charitable Foundation for Children, which owned the building, was formed and continues to fund grants for youth-focused organizations in Southwest Virginia today.
In 1955, after the bank closed the furniture business, the Heironimus Store signed a lease and began work on a $1.3 million renovation plan, which included the installation of Roanoke’s first escalators.
The Heironimus Store opened its new “old” downtown location to much fanfare in 1956. Inside the store featured everything from appliances and apparel to an Anticipation Shop (where one would find maternity clothing) and a beauty parlor. It even added a men’s wig-ery featuring synthetic wigs with sideburns. To put on a more modern style, the exterior of the building received a makeover with aluminum sheeting for a sleeker look.
Heironimus continued to be an important part of the Downtown experience. It was very involved in the community hosting teen and women’s advisory councils, offering classes in knitting and other activities, and its window displays were the stuff of legend under the watchful direction of design artist James Powers.
Doing business by the Golden Rule was the guiding star for Heironimus since the very beginning. From Downtown Roanoke, the store opened locations in local malls and shopping centers in Roanoke, Blacksburg, Lynchburg, and Salem along with a petite shop under a separate name in Virginia and the Carolinas. Leadership made a conscious decision not to open a location where it didn’t have name recognition. Even in the challenging times of the 1970s and 1980s, the business managed to survive and grow by developing its own niche.
The building was sold by the Edgar A. Thurman Charitable Trust in 1997 to a developer who planned street-level retail with office and luxury apartments on the upper floors. In 1999, The Emporium had 30 retail tenants including a restaurant, a bakery, a grocery store, and several others. But, by 2005, the building stood empty. It is only by luck that it stood at all – thanks to an error in paperwork, the building was spared from the wrecking ball. The Monument Company from Richmond, Virginia purchased the building in 2018 with plans for apartments in the upper floors for new generations of downtown dwellers, and they partnered with the Mast Store to breathe retail life back into a building steeped in history and commerce.
It became a part of the Mast Store Family in 2020.
**Photos courtesy of the Virginia Room.
It’s said that the Roanoke Valley in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains is an outdoor lover’s paradise. We at Mast General Store fully agree, and we’re not alone! ...read more
Adventure | Local Flavor
Roanoke
Fall is here! The bridge between summer and fall is full of delicious possibilities: the last heirloom tomatoes and sweet corn linger, pears and sweet potatoes start to arrive, and more apples than you can name can all be found at your local farmers’ market. ...read more
Local Flavor | Gardening | At Home
Asheville | Annex - Valle Crucis | Boone | Columbia | Greenville | Hendersonville | Knoxville | Roanoke | Original - Valle Crucis | Waynesville | Winston-Salem
Nature has the power to heal, challenge, and connect. It can transport us to a place that is far away from our stress-filled world. It can help us see our world from a different perspective, and it embraces us in a manner that technology cannot. It connects us in ways both physical and mental to the earth and to each other. Where is the prescription for this magical elixir? It’s as close as your favorite local trail. ...read more
Adventure | Inspiration | Local Flavor
Columbia | Greenville | Knoxville | Roanoke
It’s said that the Roanoke Valley in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains is an outdoor lover’s paradise. We at Mast General Store fully agree, and we’re not alone! ...read more
Adventure | Local Flavor
Roanoke
Fall is here! The bridge between summer and fall is full of delicious possibilities: the last heirloom tomatoes and sweet corn linger, pears and sweet potatoes start to arrive, and more apples than you can name can all be found at your local farmers’ market. ...read more
Local Flavor | Gardening | At Home
Asheville | Annex - Valle Crucis | Boone | Columbia | Greenville | Hendersonville | Knoxville | Roanoke | Original - Valle Crucis | Waynesville | Winston-Salem
Nature has the power to heal, challenge, and connect. It can transport us to a place that is far away from our stress-filled world. It can help us see our world from a different perspective, and it embraces us in a manner that technology cannot. It connects us in ways both physical and mental to the earth and to each other. Where is the prescription for this magical elixir? It’s as close as your favorite local trail. ...read more
Adventure | Inspiration | Local Flavor
Columbia | Greenville | Knoxville | Roanoke