The Mast General Store: An honest review
Downtown Hendersonville is a wonderful, thriving, eclectic place. How eclectic? Well, there’s Hospice Home Supply right there on the edge of downtown, in the shadow of the courthouse. But that’s OK. There’s also a SweetFrog shop right next door. So, as you’re touring downtown, you can have a somewhat stark and shocking reminder of your own mortality, and then wash it away with a refreshing and delicious Fro-yo.
Afterward, if you still need a little help shaking off the shadows of the inevitable gaping maw awaiting us all, there’s a baby boutique directly across the street.
On the opposite end of downtown, far away from the retail tribute to the Yin and Yang of the circle of life, sits a Mast General Store, filled with flannel, old man hats, classic candies, and a lot more. A living tribute to the history of retail in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina.
The history of Mast General Store
Born in the tiny community of Valle Crucis, located in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Banner Elk and Boone, the Mast General Store began life as the name suggests, a general store offering a little bit of anything and everything to its customers. The store’s roots date back to the 1850s, when Henry Taylor moved from Sugar Grove, five miles away, and set up shop. Before the Civil War, he took on a partner, and the store became the Taylor & Moore General Store…