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The following "ready-to-go" featurettes are provided courtesy of the Mast General Store. Please feel free to use them in whole or in part. A short introduction will be provided on this page, with links to a full feature.
Valle Crucis: The State's First Rural Historic District - The community of Valle Crucis has always been a progressive one, but sometimes progress means the slowing of some of your momentum. In the early 1990s the residents of this small Blue Ridge Mountain community came together to preserve its pastoral nature by imposing restrictions to limit construction and land changes. The group's hope was to continue the feeling that historian John Preston Arthur wrote about in his 1915 History of Watauga County saying "A dreamy spell which hangs over this little valley..." Continue??
Mast Store Has Handmade "Cures" for Gout and Gray Hair - General Stores were once the lifeline for rural America; they were the "marketers" for locally harvested "wildcrafted" roots and herbs and other goods. Today, at the Mast General Store, it's much the same. Many of the crafts featured in the store's Mercantile department are made by local artists. Gout rockers and traditional ladies' bonnets are two that have interesting ties to the Store itself. Continue??
Tried and True for Mast General Store - Even before the Mast General Store had locations on several Mountain Main Streets (Boone, Waynesville, Hendersonville, Asheville in North Carolina, Greenville, South Carolina, and Knoxville, Tennessee), it was serving many communities near Valle Crucis. Three Mast relatives, in addition to W. W. Mast, had general stores in the communities of Cove Creek, Silverstone, and Brushy Fork. Some of the same ideas that made them successful have carried over to the present-day Mast General Store. Continue??
We've Counted on Mast for Over a Hundred Years - The more things change; the more they remain the same. The Mast General Store has changed little over its 100-plus years. It was once known as the store that had everything from "Cradles to Caskets." These items are no longer available, although there is a "coffin" on display upstairs, but many of the staple items for households many years ago that are hard to find now are among Mast's vast product selection. Come in and "set" a spell and listen to the stories the Mast Store has to tell.
Mast Store Has Handmade "Cures" for Gout and Gray Hair
It used to be roots and herbs and crops and chickens that folks brought to the Mast General Store in historic Valle Crucis for trade. Today, the items "traded" are more along the lines of baskets, birdhouses, bread, homemade butter, and hand-turned bowls. Although the products may have changed, the intent is still the same - the Mast Store provides a marketplace for local and regional residents and artists to present the fruits of their efforts.
"Crafting is quite a productive cottage industry in the mountains," said Sheri Moretz, a life-long resident of Watauga County and publicist for the Mast Store. "Recently, the spotlight on crafts has shone even brighter through the work of Handmade in America. We really have some talented people practicing skills and making goods that can't be found just anywhere."
One of those items you can find at any of the Mast General Stores, but probably not anywhere else, is a Gout Rocker, made by Cove Creek resident Pat Reece. It was once the prescribed treatment for a painful foot ailment, but now it is a popular addition to any rocking chair as well as an interesting conversation piece. Consisting of two rockers on curvaceous legs and a thin upholstered cross-piece, the rocker looks something like a child's rocking chair that was left unfinished.
"The idea initially came from Harllee Rothenberger. She used to see 'gout rockers' come to the Mast Store, but they were a little chunkier than the ones you'll see today. Harllee took the design and incorporated a few dressier elements to make an improved piece," said Pat from her Cove Creek home.
Not much is known about the actual origin of the gout rocker. Harllee having grown up in plantation country had heard of them as a child, and her father, who was a pharmacist, had spoke of them. It just seemed like a natural progression to move from a stool to a rocker because it's just that much more comfortable when sitting in your rocking chair and having your feet rock along with you.
"Much of what we did was trial and error in the beginning," said Pat with a grin. "We experimented with everything - even a stain concocted of Varsol compounds and walnut hulls for coloring. Once we tried filling an order with a new kind of wood. We tried every way imaginable to dry the wood out - including zapping it in the microwave. As it turned out, we had to buy a whole new shipment of wood to complete the order."
From its humble beginnings using common hand tools, the ladies added pieces of equipment to make their job a little easier. But that didn't mean sacrificing quality or wasting materials.
"I'm a fanatic for craftsmanship. If I don't feel like it's put together well and will stand up to usage, I won't let it out of my shop," explained Pat. Her shop includes a number of "jigs" and templates used to speed up the process, but even with these time-saving apparatuses, each rocker has its own unique character and look. "No two gout rockers are exactly alike."
Harllee passed on a little over two years ago, a victim of cancer, but Pat points out, "Everyone that we encounter leaves a part of themselves with us. Harllee left me a great gift in these rockers and her friendship." This could also be said of craftspeople, who pass on a little of themselves in every piece of art they make.
Pat, who lives with her family and her father in Cove Creek, North Carolina, is a teaching assistant at Watauga High School in the Vocational Arts area.
Gout rockers are not the only product that Mast Store carries with a little bit of local history to them. Traditional sun bonnets - those like Caroline Ingalls wore on the television show Little House on the Prairie - have been made for the Mast Store by a member of the same family for the last 37 years.
Reba Townsend said, "I remember my grandma Coffey tellin' me 'git something on your head. If you'd jest wear a bonnet or somethin', your hair won't turn gray.' I guess she was right, 'cause when she died, she didn't have hardly a gray hair on her head." Reba has taken some of those words to heart - not necessarily the wearin' of a bonnet, as her gray hair can attest, but the makin' of a bonnet. She has been making bonnets for the Mast Store for some 10-12 years using patterns that are at least 50 years old.
"I got into making bonnets when Mack's mother, Clemmie, came to stay with us after a spell in the hospital. She had some already started, and I helped her finish them up." Clemmie Townsend made bonnets for the Mast Store for probably 25 years and dealt with Howard Mast. After one time helping Clemmie, she and Reba took to making them together.
Reba recalled that she started sewing when her mother sat her down with some quilt scraps and got her started. "She also tried to teach me how to make bedspread lace, but it kinda bugged me. I stuck to sewing." (However, she has been know to tie a few lengths of bedspread lace, too.)
Reba and her husband Mack are both natives of the area. She was born on Dutch Creek in April, 1924, not too far from her present-day home and went to school on Dutch Creek before graduating from the Mission School (now the Valle Crucis Conference Center). Mack was born on Clark's Creek in October, 1924 and went to school in the original Valle Crucis School (located behind the Original Mast Store in Valle Crucis and now housing Beaumont Pottery).
She hopes to pass along the bonnet-making business to her granddaughters, who live just a hop, skip, and a jump up Dutch Creek and to get them interested in her other mountain crafts - and those of her husband.
The Mast Store has many stories to tell of crafters, history, and heritage. Locations in Valle Crucis and Waynesville host the Mast Store Crafter Series from June through December on selected weekends. If you would like more information on planning a visit to the Mast Store in Valle Crucis, Boone, Waynesville, Hendersonville, or Asheville North Carolina, please call 704-963-6511, write Mast Store, Highway 194, Valle Crucis, NC 28691, or e-mail at maststore@skybest.com.
Valle Crucis: The State's First Rural Historic District
The community of Valle Crucis has always been a progressive one, but sometimes progress means the slowing of some of your momentum. In the early 1990s the residents of this small Blue Ridge Mountain community came to gether to preserve its pastoral nature by imposing restrictions to limit construction and land changes. The group's hope was to continue the feeling that historian John Preston Arthur wrote about in his 1915 History of Watauga County saying "A dreamy spell which hanges over this little valley..." wrote local historian John Preston Arthur at the turn of the 20th century. Valle Crucis, Latin for Vale of the Cross, has an interesting past much of which is preserved in its buildings and way of life today.
As North Carolina's first and only rural historic district, this small community in the northwest mountains cherishes its links to the past and preserves them for generations to come.
In the early 1990s, residents of Valle Crucis came together in the wake of new development in the valley to ensure that integrity and character that is Valle Crucis will be protected for years to come. "We saw the new development and the possibilities that it opened up for our community as a detriment to our quality of life," said Jill Storelli, a member of the Valle Crucis Community Council, the group established to oversee future growth within the historic district. "We didn't want our valley's pastoral beauty destroyed by cookie-cutter businesses or homes that detract from the rural countryside, so we imposed restrictions on ourselves within the district, which encompasses the Mast General Store, the Mast Farm Inn, and the Valle Crucis Conference Center - all buildings that are on the National Register of Historic Places - to control building, fixturing, and land usage."
The restrictions have been successful within the district. Visitors today are treated to beautiful scenery, open farm lands, wooded hillsides, and a way of life that harkens back to days without mega-malls and 50-story hotels; when where you stayed you were treated like family and the local store was the center of the community.
The Mast General Store is the community's gathering point. In the early mornings, all the problems of the local area and the nation are solved over a nickel cup of coffee by those on their way to work. "It's like a ritual," said Dave Donovan, a local plumber. "If I didn't start my day here, I'd be lost for the rest of it."
Susan Musilli, a ten-year resident, puts up the mail at the antique post office at the Store. "It's fun. You see practically everyone in the community everyday as they come in to pick up their mail. At other post offices, you rarely get to know your customers, but here, they're my friends and neighbors."
Lunch time brings in a-whole-nother batch of regulars. Some folks have been coming to the Mast Store for a "country lunch" for as long as they can remember. Health food fanatics may not want to read on, but in its own way a country lunch provides what's good for the soul. It consists of saltine crackers, a slab of bologna, a chunk of cheese, an RC Cola and is rounded out with a Moon Pie. But the most important ingredient is the conversation over the checkerboard by the pot-bellied stove. Sometimes the best part of lunch is not what you eat but with whom you eat it.
And if you're looking for an "old somethin' or other" that your grandmother used in the kitchen to make the best fried apple pies, you're sure to find it here. The store specializes in general merchandise featuring everything from hand-cranked ice cream freezers and cast iron cookware to stove parts and chicken scratch and most everything in between.
The Mast General Store could easily be called the stalwart of Valle Crucis, and if that is the case, then the Mast Farm Inn is the grandame of the valley. Its sprawling complex of buildings was once a large working farm, which first greeted guests in the early 1900s and welcomed them into the family. The feeling is much the same some 90 plus years later, and they even grow many of their own vegetables used in the kitchen.
Reaching even farther back into Valle Crucis history, the site of the Valle Crucis Conference Center is the beginning of the community. Here the Latin name for the valley was given and the first Anglican Monastic Order since the Reformation was formed. The Conference Center, referred to by many locals as the Mission School because of its years as a boarding school, still educates groups from all up and down the east coast with conferences and festivals held throughout the year.
In true fashion, the Mast Store is still the center of the community, even on the World Wide Web. You can find out more about the Mast Store, the Mast Farm Inn, the Valle Crucis Conference Center, and many more of the bed and breakfasts and businesses in Valle Crucis by visiting the Valle Crucis Page that is a part of the Mast Store site. Begin planning your trip with a stop at www.mastgeneralstore.com. Or if you'd prefer using Ma Bell to request a brochure from the Mast General Store, please call 828-963-6511 or you can write for information at Mast General Store, Highway 194, Valle Crucis, NC 28691.
Tried and True for Mast General Store
Travel at the turn of the century was a far cry from our fancy cars whisking us to multi-stored shopping malls and curiously-stocked specialty stores. Many folks who lived in the mountains had trips of 10 miles one way to get to the nearest store. Fortunately, most general merchandise stores were no more than five to ten miles apart in order to better serve their neighbors and were most always "ma and pa" owned, and they even housed the community's post office to make their store a "one-stop" destination.
In the northwestern mountains of North Carolina, one family in particular seemed to have a knack for minding the store. This extended family, the Mast family, had numerous stores serving the residents of western Watauga County in the early part of the 20th century. These stores stretched from the now famous Mast General Store in Valle Crucis (1883) to the A.C. Mast Store in Sugar Grove to the Doc Mast Store in Brushy Fork to the James Mast Store in Silverstone. You could almost say it was something of a chain store.
Most stocking of the shelves was done by ordering from catalogs, but sometimes a "drummer" (a traveling salesman drumming up business) would make a call on the store and then stay overnight with the shopkeeper. Buying trips were made occasionally. From Watauga County, these trips might be made over to Bristol, Virginia or Johnson City, Tennessee. And they would require an overnight stay because even taking the narrow-gauge train "Tweetsie," it would take most of the day to get to their destination.
Over the decades of existence of Mast Stores, not a whole lot has changed. Many of those that served the local residents have fallen into ruin because improved roads made it easier to travel to "town" to fulfill our household needs. Some of the old stores are now being used by other businesses, like antique shops, because of the improved roads that makes it easier for flatlanders to visit the mountains.
The concept and practice of doing business in these country stores hasn't changed much either.
The Mast Store is now owned by John and Faye Cooper, but there are still members of the Mast family minding the store. Just like predecessors, the Mast Store today is somewhat of a chain with locations in Valle Crucis, Boone, Waynesville, Hendersonville and in May of 1999 in Asheville.
Having achieved success in fostering a step back in time at their Valle Crucis location, an 1883 National Historic Landmark, the Coopers decided to try their hands at packaging that same nostalgic feeling along with their unique mix of mountain lifestyle clothing, outdoor gear, and old-timey mercantile and furnishings in historic mountain downtowns. Just as in the past, it's proven to be a good fit because the stores seek to meet the needs of its local residents by having work clothes like Carhartt for farmers and traditional casual clothing at fair prices for others while actively offering the general store experience and atmosphere to tourists visiting the area.
"The similarities to the practices of the old stores are still with us in many ways," says Faye Cooper. "Much of our ordering is still done through catalogs of a sort, especially in the mercantile and housewares area. We are still visited by many sales reps from several different companies. And there are even a few of those that will stay overnight in our home because over the years we have been in business, we have developed close relationships."
Buying trips have changed somewhat. No longer do buyers catch the train to Johnson City and have to spend the day traveling 40 miles. The trips today are to far-away destinations like Charlotte, New York, or Reno, where hundreds of companies will display and "drum" their wares, but local artisans and crafters visit the "off-the-beaten-path" central offices to tout the features of their unique three-pronged whimmy diddle or one-of-a-kind birdhouse. "Buying duties are no longer performed by one person either," Faye added. "With the diversity in goods that we carry today, one or two people couldn't possibly have the knowledge to make educated buys in each area. It's fun for me to imagine buying for the stores back at the turn of the century when the Mast motto was 'We carry everything from cradles to caskets.' You had to have a little of a lot and sourcing would have been very challenging."
One of the most important areas that has not changed over time is the type of customer service offered to Mast's patrons. "We try to remain cognizant of our customer's need for personal attention and knowledge, and we make every effort to make people feel comfortable and at home in our stores - like they would have in the early days coming to get their mail or to share community happenings with their neighbors."
With all the changes, theories, and fads over the years, it can at times pay to stick with ideas and practices that are tried and true. Some things only get better with time. And the Mast Store is one of them.
The Mast General Store can be found online at www.mastgeneralstore.com. Their mailing address is Mast General Store, Highway 194, Valle Crucis, NC 28691, and they can be reached by phone at 828-963-6511.
Valle Crucis: The State's First Rural Historic District
The community of Valle Crucis has always been a progressive one, but sometimes progress means the slowing of some of your momentum. In the early 1990s the residents of this small Blue Ridge Mountain community came to gether to preserve its pastoral nature by imposing restrictions to limit construction and land changes. The group's hope was to continue the feeling that historian John Preston Arthur wrote about in his 1915 History of Watauga County saying "A dreamy spell which hanges over this little valley..." wrote local historian John Preston Arthur at the turn of the 20th century. Valle Crucis, Latin for Vale of the Cross, has an interesting past much of which is preserved in its buildings and way of life today.
As North Carolina's first and only rural historic district, this small community in the northwest mountains cherishes its links to the past and preserves them for generations to come.
In the early 1990s, residents of Valle Crucis came together in the wake of new development in the valley to ensure that integrity and character that is Valle Crucis will be protected for years to come. "We saw the new development and the possibilities that it opened up for our community as a detriment to our quality of life," said Jill Storelli, a member of the Valle Crucis Community Council, the group established to oversee future growth within the historic district. "We didn't want our valley's pastoral beauty destroyed by cookie-cutter businesses or homes that detract from the rural countryside, so we imposed restrictions on ourselves within the district, which encompasses the Mast General Store, the Mast Farm Inn, and the Valle Crucis Conference Center - all buildings that are on the National Register of Historic Places - to control building, fixturing, and land usage."
The restrictions have been successful within the district. Visitors today are treated to beautiful scenery, open farm lands, wooded hillsides, and a way of life that harkens back to days without mega-malls and 50-story hotels; when where you stayed you were treated like family and the local store was the center of the community.
The Mast General Store is the community's gathering point. In the early mornings, all the problems of the local area and the nation are solved over a nickel cup of coffee by those on their way to work. "It's like a ritual," said Dave Donovan, a local plumber. "If I didn't start my day here, I'd be lost for the rest of it."
Susan Musilli, a ten-year resident, puts up the mail at the antique post office at the Store. "It's fun. You see practically everyone in the community everyday as they come in to pick up their mail. At other post offices, you rarely get to know your customers, but here, they're my friends and neighbors."
Lunch time brings in a-whole-nother batch of regulars. Some folks have been coming to the Mast Store for a "country lunch" for as long as they can remember. Health food fanatics may not want to read on, but in its own way a country lunch provides what's good for the soul. It consists of saltine crackers, a slab of bologna, a chunk of cheese, an RC Cola and is rounded out with a Moon Pie. But the most important ingredient is the conversation over the checkerboard by the pot-bellied stove. Sometimes the best part of lunch is not what you eat but with whom you eat it.
And if you're looking for an "old somethin' or other" that your grandmother used in the kitchen to make the best fried apple pies, you're sure to find it here. The store specializes in general merchandise featuring everything from hand-cranked ice cream freezers and cast iron cookware to stove parts and chicken scratch and most everything in between.
The Mast General Store could easily be called the stalwart of Valle Crucis, and if that is the case, then the Mast Farm Inn is the grandame of the valley. Its sprawling complex of buildings was once a large working farm, which first greeted guests in the early 1900s and welcomed them into the family. The feeling is much the same some 90 plus years later, and they even grow many of their own vegetables used in the kitchen.
Reaching even farther back into Valle Crucis history, the site of the Valle Crucis Conference Center is the beginning of the community. Here the Latin name for the valley was given and the first Anglican Monastic Order since the Reformation was formed. The Conference Center, referred to by many locals as the Mission School because of its years as a boarding school, still educates groups from all up and down the east coast with conferences and festivals held throughout the year.
In true fashion, the Mast Store is still the center of the community, even on the World Wide Web. You can find out more about the Mast Store, the Mast Farm Inn, the Valle Crucis Conference Center, and many more of the bed and breakfasts and businesses in Valle Crucis by visiting the Valle Crucis Page that is a part of the Mast Store site. Begin planning your trip with a stop at www.mastgeneralstore.com. Or if you'd prefer using Ma Bell to request a brochure from the Mast General Store, please call 828-963-6511 or you can write for information at Mast General Store, Highway 194, Valle Crucis, NC 28691.
We've Counted on Mast for Over a Hundred Years
It was still dark outside when W. W. Mast climbed into the wagon seat for the long ride over the Valle Mountain to the Elk Park depot. The horses shivered as their bodies strained against the harness to begin the journey. A new shipment of cloth, candy, shoes, and other goods was arriving today, and it was important to have it ready for his customers as soon as possible. They were depending on him.
Around about noon, after a six hour jostle over the rutted road, W. W. arrived in Elk Park with just enough time to enjoy dinner by the tracks before the train's arrival. It wouldn't be long before his wagon would be heavily laden with most everything that his mountain neighbors needed. He'd just finished off the last bite of the ham biscuit his wife fixed for him this morning when the sound of Tweetsie's whistle and the smoke from the engine announced her arrival. He looked at his watch - "Only a little late today," and he knew that would make for a long day going back over the mountain and then preparing the goods for the next day's business.
Seven crates of merchandise were loaded onto the back of the wagon, and the trip back over the winding steep mountain road began. It was dark when he pulled up to the front door of his store in Valle Crucis, but his day's work wasn't over. W. W. unloaded the wagon and arranged the goods in the store before going home for the evening. He knew that tomorrow, at first light, someone would come in needing a bolt to repair a door or a couple yards of cloth to make a special courtin' dress, and he wanted to be ready.
The Mast General Store was started in 1883 by Henry Taylor. W. W. Mast bought a half interest in the burgeoning community center in 1897 and eventually became the sole owner in 1913.
Over the years, things didn't change much. Mast General Store became known as the store that had everything "From Cradles to Caskets." And that was true. Mr. Mast would even extend credit to those waiting for their crops to come in before they could pay him, so they could have what they needed at the time. The tradition of "neighborliness" continued on through the years, with the store catering to its community's needs. It provided an outlet for herbs, roots, and barks for those who earned their spending money as "gatherers;" it was also the social center for all who wanted to warm their bodies by the potbellied stove (or warm their fingers with a hot game of checkers); it was a place to buy your boots to work in the fields and a place to mail a letter to your sweetheart off fighting in the war.
W. W. Mast passed his storekeeper's apron to his son Howard Mast and he, in turn, passed it to his son "H." Mast. Today, "H." is often the first in the door in the morning. As his father and his grandfather did before him, he promptly goes over to stoke the stove in the middle of the first room to knock the chill off the morning air. "H." chuckles as he looks at the "new-fangled" registers. "Why, I remember when I was the register. I made change out of what I had in my pocket. Lots of times it was small change." With this he plunges his hand into his pocket and pulls out some of the smallest coins you've ever seen.
It's this kind of down-home humor and folksiness you'll find at today's Mast General Store, and it's not too far removed from what Mr. Taylor and W. W. started off with in the late 1800s in its merchandise today either. The store still carries overalls, work boots, bolts, horse feed, groceries, cast iron cookware, leather gloves, kerosene lamps, oil cloth, stick candy, and you can still mail a letter in the antique corner post office
"H." was the last of the Masts to actually own the store. It was sold in the 1970s and passed through several owners before it closed in 1977. What had been the life blood of the community looked as if it was another casualty of the shopping mall.
If it weren't for the efforts of a Florida couple, this sentiment might have come true. John and Faye Cooper had fallen in love with the store during their visits to the area. "I wanted to look in every corner. The place fascinated me," John said of his first visit to the store in 1976. To keep the country-store tradition alive, he and his family sold their home in Florida and wagered their future on a fancy of having the storekeeper's apron passed on to them.
The Valle Crucis community was excited to have their store open again and to have their identity back with the reopening of the old post office. "It wasn't easy. To keep our expenses down, we lived in the upper level of the store and had the whole operation self-contained to begin with," said John. "But after a lot of hard work and long hours, the store has regained its reputation as a store where you can find most anything. It is popular among the thousands of tourists that visit us every year, but we still keep our locals in mind because they are what keep us going in the slower months."
This one hundred sixteen year old store, with all of its crooked plank siding, peeling-paint ceilings, and creaking floor boards, is certainly a character in and of itself. Come in and "set" a spell. The store has a tale all its own to tell.
How do you find the Mast General Store? It's off the beaten path, but the scenery, no matter what the season, makes the extra effort of the visit worth it. From Raleigh, follow I-40 West through Winston-Salem and take the Highway 421 North (to Wilkesboro) exit. Follow Highway 421 North to Boone and turn left onto the Highway 105 Extension. Stay on Highway 105 South for approximately five miles. At a traffic light just after crossing a bridge, turn right on Camp Broadstone Road and go three miles. The original 1883 store is on the right.
Other store locations include Asheville, Hendersonville, Waynesville, Boone, and Valle Crucis. The stores in Asheville, Hendersonville, Waynesville, and Boone are located in charming downtown shopping districts and smack of the flavor of turn-of-the-century department stores. The Annex (circa 1909), which is located just 2/10s of a mile from the original store houses men's and ladies' clothing, the Candy Barrel featuring over 500 old-fashioned favorites, and outdoor gear, as well as the Creekside Deli.
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