This is one of several commercial structures in Oak Park built by Joe Powell. Originally a pharmacy, it was later owned by Harvey Woodrow Lindsey and served many other commercial uses over the years and is now the last survivor of a row of three brick storefronts.
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Hello, Brian,
I have continued to enjoy your posts, and marvel that someone else sees beauty in these old and often decrepit buildings. Sometimes I imagine going inside and just standing there, listening with the spirit, to see if I can hear conversations from the once-vibrant past.
This building (and others like it) remind me of some of the customers my family’s wholesale business used to have, across eastern GA & SC, and northern FL: so unlike the commercial buildings I came to know, growing up in Savannah, a far more cosmopolitan city than these rural towns. One in particular comes to mind with this building, E.W. Long’s Variety Store in Lexington, SC, just this side of Columbia.
I was working one summer as a truck driver’s helper, (late 1960’s or early 1970’s) and I was amazed when I saw Mr. Long’s store, while delivering a shipment one day. He must have been as old as his building, but he knew everything in it and exactly where it was! It had the old tall shelving so common in those days (tall to make up for the lack of width), and a skinny rolling ladder attached to a track on each side that enabled access to the upper shelves. I imagined putting inventory on those shelves was a far different issue than pulling an item down for purchase. OSHA would have something to say about that, these days, but I don’t think OSHA existed when these buildings were built!
I know Charleston is famous for building houses like this: long and narrow, because the taxation system carried over from England was based on the footage fronting the street; so folks built in a manner to limit taxes while still providing adequate living space. Savannah has many older homes downtown built in the same fashion. I am guessing that stores like this (common across the Low Country) were probably built this way for the same reason.
Thanks for sharing these marvelous old buildings with us.
Rafe Semmes Midway GA