Pete Tyson writes that this was Claude Golden’s grocery store. He also sold gasoline as there’s a nearly-gone Shell sign in front of the building. Bill Evans writes that it was built by Bill Evans, a large landowner and timber man.
Most of these storefronts are in ruins and will soon be gone. The building on the far right was Brady’s Food Basket, the local grocery store.
This was probably a busy place back in its heyday. The owners have spruced it up a bit with the mural and paintings on the windows.
Mary Ellen McDuffie writes: This was a grocery store operated by my “uncle” Herman Phillips. Later, in the mid-1960’s, it was converted to a machine shop operated by my late husband and his step-father. The mural appears to date from the 1970s or 1980s.
This was an interesting combination.
Between the two residential historic districts on Main Street are a couple of blocks of commercial buildings which served Marshallville at the height of the peach boom. Most are empty today, I believe. Just don’t consider that a reason not to stop. It’s a good place to park and take a quick sidewalk tour of the great residential architecture, down the street in either direction.
Marshallville Commercial District, National Register of Historic Places
I ran into a local gentleman while photographing in Mershon and he said that sixty years ago this was a busy place, where turpentine workers who lived nearby ran accounts. He also said his father remembered working on Model-T Fords in the garage at the rear of the store.
Sequana Thompson Beale writes: A gentleman named “Hershel” owned this store back in the 1960’s & 70’s. I spent a couple of summers working in the store. I got the job as a twelve year old because I knew how to make change in my head. The only number on the cash register that worked was the 5 to open it. I also sliced the bologna for customers during rush hour “dinner time” for the Tobacco field workers. Fond memories!
Cheryl Sebastian adds: Used to go there for bread and a few slices of bologna sliced off the log with a knife! Those were the days, my friend!
Tommy Smith writes: “Jehue Dill operated the store in the late 50s and early 60s. This was Jerry Dill’s daddy. My brother and I stayed with Mrs. Edna Roberts, just down the hill towards Ocilla, while our parents worked. We would walk to the store almost every day. We would buy candy cigarettes and firecrackers with our dime. As we got older, we called it the firecracker store. The Griffins lived next to the store and did own the building.“
I made this photograph in 2008 and Smith’s Grocery hasn’t changed much since then. It’s a local landmark and a great independent business.