Southern Pine Lumber Company Commissary

A 1907 photograph shows how much this store held. The ground-floor general store measured 36 by 66 feet, with a storeroom of equal size beside it, and the second floor, 66 by 72 feet, carried furniture and men's furnishings. The drugstore was 30 by 50 feet. Manager W. P. Rutland ran it with twelve others. The store served as the geographic and social center of the town, and a 1908 account described branch stores operating from boxcars at the logging camps. In the 1950s a shopping center replaced the old commissary.

What the plaque says

Southern Pine Lumber Company Commissary The original commissary at this site was constructed about 1894 when T. L. L. Temple (1859 - 1935) started the first Southern Pine Lumber Company sawmill here. The store was moved to the present building when it was completed in 1923. The inventory included groceries, medicine, ice, furniture, dry goods, and coffins. Items were purchased with "company checks," special tokens of metal or wax-coated paper. Managed from 1896 to 1938 by W. P. Rutland, the commissary closed in 1953. The building housed company offices until 1979. (1980)

Where it stands

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