The original Pierce and Co. store at Red Bug was destroyed in an early morning fire today (Saturday).
Hallsboro Fire Department was dispatched around 2 a.m., and spent hours on the scene.
The store sustained major damage after it was struck by a car in 2021. The owners of the property had stabilized the structure, although the corner facing Red Bug and Pierce Cemetery roads was open.
The building had been used for storage since it was closed in the 1950s. A number of tools and artifacts were reported lost in the blaze.
Built in 1898, the original store was a commercial and social center for the community for decades. After Hallsboro began growing due to to the lumber mill, the store was moved to the brick building at the intersection of N.C. 214 and Hallsboro Road, where it is still in business. The company recently celebrated its 100th anniversary in the new location.
The original store building was damaged in Hurricanes Hazel, Matthew and Florence, as well as being struck by a number of vehicles through the years.
In 2004, the late Ray Wyche told the News and Observer that his grandfather, Henry Wyche, started the store with the Pierce brothers and another man to help farmers sell produce and provide for the community.
“There was a national farmer’s organization called the Farmers Alliance, mainly a cooperative for buying fertilizer and selling produce,” Wyche told the N&O. “The Mount Hebron chapter organized here in 1893, at a place now called Red Bug, about two miles south of Hallsboro, and my grandfather, Henry Wyche, was the business manager. When the Farmers Alliance played out, the people came to my grandfather and said, why don’t you start a store? He said, I’d love to, but I don’t have any money. Two men named Pierce and a man named Thompson said, we’ll furnish some of the money if you’ll put up some.”
Progress Energy and Spectrum Cable are working to restore service in the area.
The cause is under investigation. This is a developing story.
