After sitting empty for eighteen months, a tiny Shenandoah Valley village is coming together to breathe new life into its historic Middlebrook General Store.
The weathered white building, which sits facing Rt. 252 in this rural farming community with acres of farm land surrounded by the Blue Ridge and Appalachian mountains, was renovated and opened by its current owners who spent more than $100,000 updating the interior and adding a patio overlooking a meandering stream. After running it for several years, they closed the store in August 2009 after purchasing a Bed and Breakfast in Yorktown, and it’s been sitting vacant since that time.
Middlebrook General Store is for sale. The surrounding community would like to buy it and once again be able to walk its worn wooden floors, enjoy a crackling fire while sitting around the potbelly stove on a cold winter day, and pick up groceries without having to drive the thirty-mile round trip to Staunton.
Thanks to a newcomer in town who has helped set up the legal end of it, and thanks to the help of many investors, plans are to hopefully reopen the store by this summer as the Middlebrook General Store Community Co-op whose members have a financial stake in its success. Shares are being sold for $25 each with some purchasing a single share while others have made higher investments. Any profits generated will be distributed back to the share owners, and expectations are that Middlebrook could be a model for other rural communities.
After several organizational meetings that attracted as many as 100 interested citizens squeezed into the community center to hear more about the plan, the co-op has collected $95,000 in pledges and revenue that has been set aside in escrow as the push continues to raise enough to approach the store owners with a credible purchase offer toward their $175,000 asking price. The co-op also needs enough capital to buy inventory to stock the shelves and pay part-time workers.
If the community is successful in buying and opening the store, those same share holders plan to stop there, shop there, help determine items to be sold, and volunteer to help. The store would again buzz with activity, and music would once again float out the open doors as the popular Friday night music gatherings resumed.
A local fiddler who not only worked at the store in the past but participated in its Friday night hoedowns, 26-year-old Hannah Short is excited about the possibility of the store reopening to again serve the community. Self-employed with several small businesses as well as working part-time with Joel Salatin at his nearby environmentally friendly Polyface Farm, she has invested in the co-op and is now helping to spread the word on Facebook. She was enthusiastic on Monday as she talked about the local goods that would be offered at the store as well as grocery staples needed in most households.
“This is exactly what is needed in the community,” she shared, adding that other ideas have sprouted such as a Saturday farmers market to highlight the productivity of local farms and perhaps a cafe-type addition.
Word about the co-op has been mostly by word-of-mouth supplemented by a bulk mailing to the community. Hannah has added social media, posting information on Facebook and expanding the idea beyond Middlebrook and Augusta County.
With the store located in the center of the village, its reopening would once again provide a place for locals and visitors to catch up on the news and grab a snack or perhaps munch on a hot dog or BBQ while waiting for car repairs at Rosen’s Garage or visiting the library. Its cozy interior could offer an oasis for patients waiting for lab results from Dr. Rob Marsh’s medical clinic across the road, just as it has in the past.
The Middlebrook General Store co-op plan is on the internet for those who are curious about how to go about such an idea or for anyone interested in investing in a rural general store, keeping alive a long-time tradition and reviving the heart of Middlebrook, Virginia.
