History of Our Studio

Our studio is in an old general store located near the corner of Willow Creek Road in Big Sandy Mush, North Carolina.  There are two old store buildings side by side, a smaller one built in 1888 and a larger, grander one completed in 1896.  Built by local businessman, Will Waldrop, with the input of his daughter, Ida, the larger store features a central staircase and an upstairs gallery style mezzanine.  The “new” store was open and inviting with ample natural light from large windows in the front and back.  The open design allowed for conversations between folks on both floors and a clear view of the till so one person could run the whole store even if they were helping a customer try on shoes upstairs.  The store passed from Will Waldrop to his daughter, Ida.  Rumors say Ida may have been selling sugar to the local moonshiners during times of war rationing and had to retire.  Ida sold the store to Carl Ball and many local old timers recall coming to Ball’s store for candy and plugs of tobacco.  Carl also ran a mobile store truck route.  The truck was outfitted with shelves of food staples and a long cage underneath for chickens.  On certain days of the week you could send a kid out to the road to wait on Carl and his truck to come by.  Many locals paid for their purchases with chickens, eggs, and fresh produce.  Live chickens were loaded in the cage underneath and sold in Asheville on Fridays when Carl made his trip to Asheville to resupply his inventory.  According to the locals, Saturday was the best day to visit the store and see what fresh goods Mr. Ball had brought back from town.  After the Ball family, several other families ran the store.  Including the Kings, the Paynes, the Bashers, and the Fisher family.  Unfortunately, as times changed and more people commuted to work in Asheville, the need for the old country store diminished.  In 1996, after being a working general store for exactly 100 years, Ralph decided to not rent the store out to another family and instead turned it into our studio.   We are blessed to have such a unique, historic space to create our brooms.