mast general store - Annex

Built in 1909 of locally harvested American Chestnut, pine, and maple, the store was originally called the Watauga Supply Co. and was owned by R. L. Lowe. The very next year C.D. Taylor and Dr. Henry Perry purchased the business and re-named it Valle Crucis Company.

The shelves were lined with groceries, toothpicks, flypaper, castor oil, brogans, piece goods, overalls, suspenders, hats, and liniments. Under the counters, barrels filled with dried beans, rice, salt, sugar, and lard were stored waiting for shopping lists to materialize to be filled. There was also hardware, nails, saddles, harnesses, and horseshoes stored in the side rooms, along with some of what would be taken in trade—eggs, chickens, wildcrafted roots and herbs, butter, nuts, and hides. It was friendly competition and each store, the Mast Store and the Valle Crucis Company, varied the stock so as not to directly compete head to head.

In 1914, R. A. Farthing, fresh off a course of study at the Draughn’s Business School of Knoxville, was hired to manage the store and later bought part interest in the business. He was also named postmaster in 1928 and continued in that capacity until 1963. The store was a family affair with his brother, Ben, his wife, Hazel, and children Ray, Glenn, Mary, and Katy all lending a hand.

The Farthing Store, as it came to be known, remained in the family as an evolving general store until 1952, when R.A. retired from the business. It went through a series of owners until one of his sons purchased the building in 1957, and all of the inventory was converted to furniture. After R.A.’s retirement as postmaster, the store became M & R Antiques. During its time as an antique store, it provided some props for the movie “Where the Lilies Bloom,” which was filmed on location in Watauga County including one scene at the Mast Store.

The store was closed completely for a period of time in the 1970s and early ‘80s, and since 1982 has housed the Mast Store Annex and The Candy Barrel.