Where most people see paintings and other fine arts and crafts through the windows of the Hillsborough Gallery of Arts, Alexa Chavious-Jennings sees the creaky-floored, penny-candy-stocked shop of her childhood.
“I’m sure it had an actual name, but my mom always called it the five-and-dime,” she says. “My fondest memories were going there.”
Chavious-Jennings could count on making the trip to North Churton Street several times a month. The youngest of nine, she knew to keep her nice footwear tucked away — those were for church, and this called for playing shoes. It was a 15-minute walk at a steady pace, but they’d often stop along McAdams Road, an offshoot of North Churton, to visit with any aunts, uncles, and grandparents who were out on their porches.
Though the street has changed through the decades, so much remains the same. Today, at 56 years old, Chavious-Jennings and her husband, Mike Jennings, still live in the cinderblock home where she grew up, and when she passes by the gallery, she can’t help but think of those visits to the five-and-dime. With family roots that go back to antebellum Hillsborough, her lineage is woven into the town’s history…