Tar Heel Travels
Valle Crucis
How a couple of tourists fell in
love with -- and saved -- the Mast Story
By Bill F. Hensley
Faye
and John Cooper come to work each day casually dressed in
dungaree shirts and jeans, ready for a full, busy day that requires
their supervision of a growing business of six stores, more than 200
employees and $17 million in annual sales. This isn’t what they
imagined their lifestyle would be when they bought the old Mast Store
in Valle Crucis in 1979.
The Coopers are Floridians who visited the North Carolina mountains in
1976 with some friends who were looking for land. Quite by accident,
they wandered into the store, long operated by the Mast family, and
were entranced by what they discovered in the unique surroundings that
represented a nostalgic visit to the past. Old posters hung on the
walls, the aged post office was intact, and the fixtures — and
merchandise — were classic turn-of-the century relics.
“They had to drag me out of the place,” John Cooper recalls,
“because I was so fascinated. It was truly a step back in time.”
The following year the Coopers learned that the store had closed, and
they began inquiring about purchasing the property.
“Because the store had been closed for almost two years, we were
able to buy it for what seemed like a reasonable price for a piece of
history,” Cooper says. “Our affiliation has been a labor of love
ever since, and we treasure what we were able to preserve.”
After restorations had been completed and the merchandise restocked,
the Coopers opened the store in 1980 to little fanfare and scarce
sales. Little did the Coopers know that within the next few years
their simple, historic country store that first opened in 1883 would
be one of the state’s most popular travel attractions and retail
establishments. As the late Charles Kuralt once said, “all general
stores are satisfying to visit, but one of them — the Mast Store —
is a destination.”
The Coopers don’t keep visitation statistics but estimate that the
two stores in Valle Crucis alone attract a quarter of million visitors
each year. Mast also operates retail outlets in Boone, Waynesville and
Asheville. A store in Greenville, S.C., will open early in 2003.
Visitors — as well as locals — flock to the general store in
Watauga County that also serves as the post office. They buy
groceries, animal feed, cast iron ware, overalls, shoes and clothing
— not straying too far from what the original owners intended.
In 1923, for example, owner W.W. Mast advertised that the store had
“quality goods for the living; coffins and caskets for the dead.”
Another ad said that the store sold everything from cradles to caskets
and boasted that “if you can’t find it here, you don’t need
it.”
The caskets are gone now except for a handsome pine box that the
Coopers keep as a display. John Cooper, 56, says that the most popular
items for tourists are hummingbird feeders, hiking boots, wooden
rocking chairs and outdoor clothing. “But local residents still buy
a lot of their groceries and staples here rather than go into Boone or
Banner Elk. In the old days, they used the store to barter things,
trading live chickens, crops, roots and herbs for goods, for
instance.”
In the winter, when the tourists have gone home and the mountains are
quiet, the store becomes the local hangout where a game of checkers
around a pot-bellied stove is a favorite pastime. The original
building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Major
additions were made in 1900, 1916 and 1939. The wormy-chestnut annex
in Valle Crucis, located less than a mile away, was built in 1909.
Besides expanding and enhancing a local treasure, the Coopers have
built a solid reputation in the North Carolina High Country by being
active in a number of church, civic, charitable and business
organizations. “Faye and John are two of our most outstanding and
enthusiastic citizens,” offers Harris Prevost, vice president of
nearby Grandfather Mountain. “They combine a vision, hard work and a
love for the area and its people, and we are better off because of
them.”
“Owning the store has been a great experience,” confesses John
Cooper. “When we bought it I was a young commercial insurance agent
and Faye was a housewife raising two young children. We never dreamed
of how the store would grow and prosper. In the beginning, each of us
would sell goods, sweep the floors, order merchandise, and put up the
mail. Our children started working when they were about 10, so our
family life centered around the store. We loved it then and still
do.”
For more information on the Mast Store, call 828-963-6511 or visit www.MastGeneralStore.com.
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