Mast General Store: Everything you need to know

Mast General Store isn’t the only small town general store in North Carolina that you should visit. Dunrovin Country Store in Vass, NC is another shop with over a half-century of history.

Mast General Store History

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The short long version of the store’s history. In the 1850s, Henry Taylor saw a community need for a retail store and opened Taylor & Moore General Store with a partner (who I assumed was named Moore, but I actually can’t find his name anywhere).

The building that stands now (at 3565 Hwy 194 S, 3565 Broadstone Rd, Sugar Grove, NC) was built by Henry Taylor in 1882 and opened the following year.

Henry Taylor sold his half in 1897 to William Wellington “W.W.” Mast and the store was renamed to Taylor and Mast General Store, which it operated under until 1913, when Mast purchased the unnamed partner’s half.

The Mast family operated the store for three generations until 1973 when it was sold to a doctor who had attended school locally. But four years later, the store closed for what the public thought was the winter season — and didn’t reopen.

The community rallied together to save the building, but it was outsides, Florida residents John and Faye Cooper, who had vacationed in the area, who bought the store in 1979 and reopened it the next year.

The Store

You park in the back of the store and when you walk up, you feel like you’re going up to the front porch of an old Southern home that you see in black-and-white television shows.

I think you know what I mean, the type of porch where two older gentlemen are sitting outside on rocking chairs, sipping lemonade, reminiscing about the good ol’ days when one of their wives comes out with a pitcher of ice cold lemonade on a tray, ready to fill their glasses.

You get a peaceful feeling when you’re watching that. Just a serene moment, captured in time.

That’s how the entrance to Mast General Store feels. You walk up a wooden porch, with some metal signs on the walls, and a rocking chair gently swinging in the wind.

There’s a chance I’m waxing poetic, and I probably am, but I very much recall a creak in the swinging screen door that leads from the porch to the store.

When you walk in the store, you are greeted by a nostalgic general store. There are baskets of “penny“ candy that basically meet you at the entrance. Glass jars, not necessarily mason jars but of a similar variety, filled with items like jellies and jams, line the wooden shelves against the wall.

For no real reason, (besides history, I thought at the time) there is a old post office cabinet. Signs on it say it’s a working post office and I don’t have a reason to doubt that it is, except for the fact that within the store is also a cabinet filled with old timey apothecary, and I’m very sure those are just there for decoration and information about the stores history and what it’s sold over the last 100 years.

But, fun note: The post office actually came back in October 1980, a few months after the Coopers opened the store. The residents had a need and, just as Mast General Store does with its merchandise, it filled that need.

You’ll find a bunch of souvenirs for the area, like stickers and magnets and postcards depicting images of nearby Beech Mountain. And treats, like the almost equally as old Goo Goo Clusters (which are a Nashville staple and America’s first combination candy bar, which was created in 1912).

And, you will also find knives. Like, a lot of knives. There’s a whole room with knives and a cabinet, which is also full of knives.

I want to say that this feels out of place, however, it doesn’t. We stumbled over a similar collection of knives for sale at a nearby consignment shop in Boone, so we just chalked it up to the assumption that knives come in handy when you live in the mountains.

Upstairs is almost exclusively filled with Christmas items. We went in September, which to me is a little bit too early to be thinking about Christmas decor, so I think this section of the store is always Christmas-centric.

That was actually pretty lucky for me because I found the most adorable carved nativity creche that I bought for my mom for Christmas that year.

Believe it or not, that was the only thing I bought. I think I was just a little bit overwhelmed with the amount of items available.

I also, surprisingly, did not buy a cup of coffee there.

Now, I’m not one of those people who constantly drinks coffee all day, but I do love a good cup of coffee. But, I didn’t notice the self-serve coffee, which costs a nickel. And, the nickel is an honor system and goes as a donation to the area.

Had I noticed that prior to us already walking around the store for quite a bit of time and checking out with our purchases, I would have definitely gotten a cup.

Seeing it for a nickel sort of remind me of the famous Wall Drug Store, which you may have heard of. It’s a conveniently located (and anecdotally famous) stop for travelers, adjacent to Badlands National Park, who need a little bit of caffeine to continue the drive.

It, too, is famous for 5 cent coffee.

Mass General Store is a little similar in the fact that it is conveniently located between Boone and Beech Mountain, so skiers or vacationers who are headed up the mountain could potentially stop for coffee. However, those are super windy roads in the mountains and I needed to sturdy hands more than I needed caffeine.

But, I’m getting on a little bit on a tangent here.

So, getting back to the store:

The store is very aware that you are stopping there more for a photo up then outerwear (most of that is the annex two-tenths of a mile up the road, anyway). You’re probably coming here because you saw it on social media, want to post it on social media, or both.

So, outside is an old tractor in front of a very large, vintage Coca-Cola sign that is a designated photo op. There’s even a sign right next to it with Mast General Store’s social media handles so you can tag them when you post.

Also outside is an old farmhouse. It was empty when we were in town, but there is usually a large pumpkin patch there in the fall.

There’s something really special about mountain life. The air is different.

And it is. Different altitude, different air. But that’s not what I mean.

It’s something you feel.

When you breathe in, the mountain air gets in your lungs and it changes you. It slows you down. Or, rather, it makes you slow down. And if you understand the difference in those two phrases, you know exactly what I mean.

The air is different.

And that’s why you should go to Mast General Store.

Not for the jarred pickles or the knives, the “penny“ candy or the coffee. Take those home with you. That’s fine.

But also, take home the history, the feeling you get from looking at that old farmhouse, even if it’s empty when you’re there, the way the tractor feels when you sit on it knowing you’re there just for a photo not manual labor, the way the screen door creaks … even if it only does when you’re reminiscing about your trip.

Sure, leave with some candy. But also, leave with some memories that change you. Leave remembering that the air is different and know that you are so much better for being in its presence, even if you only went there because you saw it on social media.

More Mast General Store Locations

This isn’t the only Mast General Store. It’s the original, but there are others. The first new store was in Boone, NC in 1988. Then, three more North Carolina locations opened: Waynesville, Hendersonville, and Asheville.

There’s one in Greenville and Columbia, South Carolina, a shop in Knoxville, Tennessee, one in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and the newest in Roanoke, Virgina.