mon9AM - 6PM
tue9AM - 6PM
wed9AM - 6PM
thu9AM - 6PM
fri9AM - 6PM
sat9AM - 6PM
sun11AM - 6PM
mon10AM - 6PM
tue10AM - 6PM
wed10AM - 6PM
thu10AM - 6PM
fri10AM - 6PM
sat10AM - 6PM
sun11AM - 6PM
mon10AM - 8PM
tue10AM - 8PM
wed10AM - 8PM
thu10AM - 8PM
fri10AM - 9PM
sat10AM - 9PM
sun11AM - 6PM
mon10AM - 6PM
tue10AM - 6PM
wed10AM - 6PM
thu10AM - 6PM
fri10AM - 8PM
sat10AM - 8PM
sun11AM - 6PM
mon10AM - 6PM
tue10AM - 6PM
wed10AM - 6PM
thu10AM - 6PM
fri10AM - 8PM
sat9AM - 8PM
sun11AM - 6PM
mon10AM - 8PM
tue10AM - 8PM
wed10AM - 8PM
thu10AM - 8PM
fri10AM - 9PM
sat10AM - 9PM
sun11AM - 6PM
mon10AM - 6PM
tue10AM - 6PM
wed10AM - 6PM
thu10AM - 6PM
fri10AM - 7PM
sat10AM - 7PM
sun11AM - 6PM
mon10AM - 8PM
tue10AM - 8PM
wed10AM - 8PM
thu10AM - 8PM
fri10AM - 9PM
sat10AM - 9PM
sun11AM - 6PM
mon10AM - 7PM
tue10AM - 7PM
wed10AM - 7PM
thu10AM - 7PM
fri10AM - 8PM
sat10AM - 8PM
sun11AM - 6PM
mon10AM - 6PM
tue10AM - 6PM
wed10AM - 6PM
thu10AM - 6PM
fri10AM - 7PM
sat10AM - 7PM
sun11AM - 6PM
mon10AM - 6PM
tue10AM - 6PM
wed10AM - 6PM
thu10AM - 6PM
fri10AM - 8PM
sat10AM - 8PM
sun11AM - 6PM
mon9AM - 6PM
tue9AM - 6PM
wed9AM - 6PM
thu9AM - 6PM
fri9AM - 6PM
sat9AM - 6PM
sun11AM - 6PM
mon10AM - 6PM
tue10AM - 6PM
wed10AM - 6PM
thu10AM - 6PM
fri10AM - 6PM
sat10AM - 6PM
sun11AM - 6PM
mon10AM - 8PM
tue10AM - 8PM
wed10AM - 8PM
thu10AM - 8PM
fri10AM - 9PM
sat10AM - 9PM
sun11AM - 6PM
mon10AM - 6PM
tue10AM - 6PM
wed10AM - 6PM
thu10AM - 6PM
fri10AM - 8PM
sat10AM - 8PM
sun11AM - 6PM
mon10AM - 6PM
tue10AM - 6PM
wed10AM - 6PM
thu10AM - 6PM
fri10AM - 8PM
sat9AM - 8PM
sun11AM - 6PM
mon10AM - 8PM
tue10AM - 8PM
wed10AM - 8PM
thu10AM - 8PM
fri10AM - 9PM
sat10AM - 9PM
sun11AM - 6PM
mon10AM - 6PM
tue10AM - 6PM
wed10AM - 6PM
thu10AM - 6PM
fri10AM - 7PM
sat10AM - 7PM
sun11AM - 6PM
mon10AM - 8PM
tue10AM - 8PM
wed10AM - 8PM
thu10AM - 8PM
fri10AM - 9PM
sat10AM - 9PM
sun11AM - 6PM
mon10AM - 7PM
tue10AM - 7PM
wed10AM - 7PM
thu10AM - 7PM
fri10AM - 8PM
sat10AM - 8PM
sun11AM - 6PM
mon10AM - 6PM
tue10AM - 6PM
wed10AM - 6PM
thu10AM - 6PM
fri10AM - 7PM
sat10AM - 7PM
sun11AM - 6PM
mon10AM - 6PM
tue10AM - 6PM
wed10AM - 6PM
thu10AM - 6PM
fri10AM - 8PM
sat10AM - 8PM
sun11AM - 6PM
When you pause and let your mind wander, where does it go? Maybe it goes to a time far away to a family trip to the lake. Perhaps it moseys off to summer days spent at your grandparents’ house. Possibly it drifts back to an amusement park visit with brothers, sisters, and the whole family. Wherever it goes, it always seems to be a summer place. Evidently, warm weather makes warm memories. ...read more
Inspiration | Mast Family Favorites
All
When was the last time you wrestled a pickle jar? Truly engaged in “person versus pickle” combat with one? Sure, we’ve all been there… ...read more
At Home | Mast Family Favorites
All
Did you know the State of North Carolina’s official folk dance is clogging? Yep, the North Carolina General Assembly adopted clogging as the state’s folk dance and shagging as the state’s official popular dance in an act executed on July 20, 2005. That’s recent history, but the roots of clogging extend to the country’s colonial period and even before. Photo courtesy of Joe Shannon's Mountain Home Music and Lonnie Webster. ...read more
Local Flavor | Travel
Asheville | Annex - Valle Crucis | Boone | Hendersonville | Knoxville | Roanoke | Original - Valle Crucis | Waynesville
... 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
All
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
Local Flavor | Mast Family Favorites
All
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
All
A key to a mysterious quest lies within the Greenville Mast General Store. It’s a treasure map of sorts. Only the treasure is likely not what you’d expect. Instead of gold, jewels, or ancient artifacts, on this journey, everyone is searching for mice.
Kids visit the store to pick up a list of clues that leads them on this scavenger hunt, which is known as Mice on Main. The Mast Store is located along the Downtown Greenville route on which nine hidden mice sculptures are scattered.
In 2000, Greenville high school student, Jim Ryan, came up with the idea for Mice on Main as his senior year project. He saw the need for a fun, family-oriented activity in the city’s reemerging downtown district.
Ryan found inspiration for the theme of hiding mice in Margaret Wise Brown’s well-known children's book Goodnight Moon. As this story’s main character falls asleep, a mouse subtly appears in nine different places in each depiction of its bedroom.
Just as the book’s illustrator, Clement Hurd, added vivacity to the story of Goodnight Moon with a touch of mouse-sized detail, Ryan required the help of local sculptor Zan Wells to give his own project life. Wells and Ryan worked together to craft the nine bronze mouse sculptures, each with its own name and design, and place them at various points along Main Street.
With the help of public support, donors, and even the city’s mayor, the project was realized and became a permanent public art fixture in Downtown Greenville.
The popularity of Mice on Main continued to grow in the years following its installation. Many locals formed personal connections to the project as they discovered the sculptures and a previously neglected part of their city with their families.
One of those Greenville residents was Linda Kelly. In 2007, Kelly decided to write a fictional children’s story based on the project after completing the scavenger hunt with her granddaughter, Sara. Enlisting the help of Ryan, they collaborated to create the book, Mice on Main, which Wells illustrated.
Not only can you find Kelly’s Mice on Main on the bookshelf of Greenville’s Mast General Store, but you can find a list of scavenger hunt clues and Mice on Main merchandise like mugs, t-shirts, and decorative replica mouse statues there, too. We won’t spoil any surprises, but who’s to say that you also won’t find a welcoming mouse around the storefront just waiting to be discovered?