Thursday, September 28, 2006

The Community Store -- Good News

Many of our readers are aware that the Community Store, a landmark business on Silver Lake Harbor, closed its doors this Spring after eight-eight years of continuous operation. It was a great loss to our close-knit village.

Residents and visitors alike were delighted to learn recently that islanders, Rob Temple & Sundae Horn, will be reopening this traditional general store the middle of next month. We will have more news of the store in the future. We have also published our most recent Ocracoke Newsletter, a tribute to the Community Store and the many other small general stores that served Ocracoke Island since the 1700s.

You can read the entire newsletter by clicking here.

4 comments:

  1. Anonymous11:06 AM

    Prayers do get answered!!!

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  2. Anonymous2:54 PM

    I enjoyed the newsletter about the history of the tiny stores on Ocracoke. I couldn't help but notice that the Variety Store was totally omitted from the story. Do you know any history on the store? When was it opened? What is the attitude of most of the islanders regarding the store? I would imagine it is practically the only name in town for many items.

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  3. The Ocracoke Variety Store has provided a valuable service to islanders for a number of years. And it is owned and operated by fine neighbors. The only reason I omitted mention of the Variety Store is that I was concentrating on general stores that existed prior to the advent of modern tourism -- before easy access to the mainland, when general stores provided most of the goods islanders wanted and needed. And I would date the beginning of modern tourism to about the mid- to late- 1950s. It was then that state operated ferries made their appearance and when the road to Hatteras was paved. The Variety Store also has an interesting history, but it doesn't begin until the 1960s when Lloyd Harkum established a furniture store in the building that now houses the Variety Store. I suppose I will do a story just on the Variety Store one of these days. Didn't mean to slight an important part of our merchantile history.

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  4. Anonymous1:12 AM

    I wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed the newsletter about the history of general stores on the island. Thanks! Perry Morse

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