Pierce and Company has an extensive history in Hallsboro beginning in 1898. Worth and Vance Pierce ran the store together with Henry Wyche, and the families maintained ownership until the 1990s when the Jolly family took over. The store’s original location was in the Red Bug community, beside a railroad spur that hauled timber to the sawmills at Hallsboro, but over time was moved to the Sam Potts Highway location.
In February of this year, Hallsboro’s historical venue changed hands again, and Mark Bronski and family have continued on the tradition of providing the community with quality customer service, and a meeting place for the locals.
A hardware store with a meat market is nestled in the brick building, and customers can find a little bit of everything in between. Fresh local honey and jams are available for purchase, and even some locally grown veggies grace the shelves. The front windows of the store may be ever-changing, but Bronski plans to keep it all traditional.
A cash register built by the National Cash Register Company in Dayton, Ohio in October 1923, is still in daily use at Pierce & Co, and even the store’s new logo was dug up from old paperwork. Old flooring has been fixed and replaced, and new lighting now shines in the aisles.
Bronski has his sights set on another piece of history, and this call is going out to the public for this particular project.
The Pierce and Company Facebook Page – another concession to the modern era – carries a request for old pictures of the store/meat market and Hallsboro Center.
Bronski plans to digitize and print the pictures with owner’s permission, and use the pictures to decorate the store. The prints will also be available to view on the store’s website at www.pierceandcogeneralstore.com.
The payment for the pictures will be in the famous Pierce and Co. sausage, which draws beach-bound travelers and locals alike into the store daily.
“If we use your pictures, we’ll reward you with some sausage for your efforts,” says Bronski in the Facebook post.
To submit old photographs to the project, call the store at 910.646.4158, or email info@pierceandcogeneralstore.com.
