104,089 Country Stores. Then the Census Stopped Counting.
The film of this episode premieres March 2, 2027 on YouTube. The documents, the transcript and the sources are below now.
In December 1911 the country merchants of America testified before a Senate subcommittee against parcel post — the plan to let the mail carry packages up to eleven pounds to any address in the United States. M. L.
Transcript
The package
R024 Country store on dirt road. Sunday afternoon. Note the kerosene pump on the right and the gasoline pump on the left. Rough, unfinished timber posts have been used as supports for porch roof. Negro men are sitting on the porch. Brother of store owner stands in doorway. Gordonton, North Carolina
Country store on dirt road. Sunday afternoon. Note the kerosene pump... · Dorothea Lange, 1939 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
The storekeepers of America went to Washington to stop a package. It was the winter of nineteen eleven.
S01
Parcel Post: Hearings, Senate Subcommittee on Parcel Post, S. Res. 56 · 1911-12 · title page. View the original.
The Senate gave them twelve hundred pages of hearings. Under oath, the merchants said the mail was about to kill the country store.
V05
1948 Census of Business, Retail Trade, Table 1C - U.S., by Kind of Business: 1948, 1939, and 1929 · table head. View the original.
They were arguing about the store at the crossroads. The government counted those stores to the end. This is that ledger.
R011 Outside the general store, Woodville, Greene County, Georgia
Outside the general store, Woodville, Greene County, Georgia · Marion Post Wolcott, 1939 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
The pictures are federal too. The negatives are black and white. The color was put on by a computer, this year. A good guess, not a record.
Batteries to bananas
R033 General store sells everything from batteries to bananas. Lamoille, Iowa
General store sells everything from batteries to bananas. Lamoille, Iowa · Arthur Rothstein, 1939 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Lamoille, Iowa. Nineteen thirty-nine. The photographer wrote that the general store sells everything from batteries to bananas.
R027 Grinding coffee. General store, Lamoille, Iowa
Grinding coffee. General store, Lamoille, Iowa · Arthur Rothstein, 1939 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Coffee came in green, in sacks. The store ground it while you waited.
R031 Farm clothes and flour. General store. Lamoille, Iowa
Farm clothes and flour. General store. Lamoille, Iowa · Arthur Rothstein, 1939 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Work clothes on one side. Flour by the hundredweight on the other.
R032 Farm implements and egg candler. General store. Lamoille, Iowa
Farm implements and egg candler. General store. Lamoille, Iowa · Arthur Rothstein, 1939 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Farm implements, and an egg candler by the wall.
R030 Tobacco and candy counter. General store. Lamoille, Iowa
Tobacco and candy counter. General store. Lamoille, Iowa · Arthur Rothstein, 1939 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Tobacco and candy shared a counter.
R022 Scale in general store. Wilson, New York
Scale in general store. Wilson, New York · FSA/OWI, 1941 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Most of what the store sold had no package. It was cut, scooped, or weighed, on a scale like this one in Wilson, New York.
R019 General store interior. Moundville, Alabama
General store interior. Moundville, Alabama · Walker Evans, 1936 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Walker Evans, inside a store near Moundville, Alabama, nineteen thirty-six.
R041 Farm children buying candy at the general store at Pie Town, New Mexico
Farm children buying candy at the general store at Pie Town, New Mexico · Russell Lee, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Farm children buying candy at Pie Town, New Mexico.
V01
Table A, 1933 Retail Census (repr. 1935 Preliminary Summary) · country general stores, 1929 and 1933. View the original.
In nineteen twenty-nine the Census Bureau counted the nation's stores, kind by kind. Country general stores: one hundred four thousand and eighty-nine. Roughly one for every twelve hundred Americans.
The post office in the back
R028 Post office in the general store. Lamoille, Iowa
Post office in the general store. Lamoille, Iowa · Arthur Rothstein, 1939 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
The store had a second job. In Lamoyle, the post office was inside it.
R021 Proprietor in general store in his post office section. Lincoln, Vermont
Proprietor in general store in his post office section. Lincoln, Vermont · Louise Rosskam, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
So was Lincoln, Vermont's. The proprietor, photographed in his post-office section.
R056 Post office in general store. Valley Bend, West Virginia
Post office in general store. Valley Bend, West Virginia · John Vachon, 1939 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Valley Bend, West Virginia. Pigeonhole boxes behind the counter.
R083 Mr. S.H. Castle in the post office inside his store by his home. Southern Appalachian Project near Barbourville, Knox County, Kentucky
Mr. S.H. Castle in the post office inside his store by his home.... · Marion Post Wolcott, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Near Barbourville, Kentucky, S.H. Castle kept the post office inside his store, next to his house.
R063 West Danville, Vermont. A farmer reading his mail at the post office in G. S. Hastings's general store
West Danville, Vermont. A farmer reading his mail at the post office... · Fritz Henle, 1942 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
In West Danville, Vermont, a farmer reads his mail at the post office inside Hastings's general store.
R036 Wives of cooperative farmers sitting in cooperative general store waiting for the mail. Lake Dick Project, Arkansas
Wives of cooperative farmers sitting in cooperative general store... · Russell Lee, 1938 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
At Lake Dick, Arkansas, the farm wives sat in the cooperative store, waiting for the mail to come.
R006 Entrance to post office in general store, Jarreau, Louisiana
Entrance to post office in general store, Jarreau, Louisiana · Russell Lee, 1938 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Louisiana. Inside the store, the door to the post office.
R005 Posters and decorations in combined general store and post office, Olga, Louisinan
Posters and decorations in combined general store and post office,... · Russell Lee, 1938 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
The arrangement was the store's engine. The mail brought the whole neighborhood through the door, and the store sold to it on the way out.
Rural free delivery
R026 Post office in general store. Birney, Montana
Post office in general store. Birney, Montana · Arthur Rothstein, 1939 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Which is why the first blow came from the Post Office itself. Starting in the eighteen nineties, rural free delivery carried the mail past the store, to a box at the farm gate. Thousands of little post offices closed.
R042 General store, Pie Town, New Mexico. The post office has been moved from this store to another small grocery store
General store, Pie Town, New Mexico. The post office has been moved... · Russell Lee, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Losing the mail could kill a store. When this one at Pie Town lost its post office to a grocery down the road, the photographer wrote it into the caption.
S05
Parcel Post: Hearings, Senate Subcommittee on Parcel Post, S. Res. 56 · 1911-12 · p. 597. View the original.
A hardware man would tell the Senate what that had done. Mail-order buying had grown, quote, largely at the expense of the cross-roads stores, which closed their doors after vainly trying to exist after the loss of their local post office.
The prophecy
S02
Parcel Post: Hearings, Senate Subcommittee on Parcel Post, S. Res. 56 · 1911-12 · p. 587. View the original.
December twelfth, nineteen eleven. The subcommittee on parcel post swears in M. L. Corey, secretary of the National Retail Hardware Association.
S04
Parcel Post: Hearings, Senate Subcommittee on Parcel Post, S. Res. 56 · 1911-12 · p. 597. View the original.
The question on the table: should the mail carry packages? Up to eleven pounds, to any address in America. The catalog houses were ready. Corey read the merchants' answer into the record. It is said a rural parcel post will benefit the country merchant. We doubt this.
S07
Parcel Post: Hearings, Senate Subcommittee on Parcel Post, S. Res. 56 · 1911-12 · p. 600. View the original.
The taking away of the post office, he testified, undoubtedly did exert a very bad effect on what we call the cross-roads stores.
S09
Parcel Post: Hearings, Senate Subcommittee on Parcel Post, S. Res. 56 · 1911-12 · p. 488. View the original.
A Dayton merchant reported what a traveler had seen in Germany, which already had parcel post. Where there used to be the crossroads merchants in Germany, you don't find them to-day. The mail-order houses and the big houses in the city have eaten them up.
S06
Parcel Post: Hearings, Senate Subcommittee on Parcel Post, S. Res. 56 · 1911-12 · p. 597. View the original.
The retailers' statement named everyone the package would take down with it. The wholesaler. The traveling man. The hotel keeper. The country newspaper. The blacksmith. It would cost the farmer ten dollars, they said, for every dollar it saved him.
S11
Parcel Post: Hearings, Senate Subcommittee on Parcel Post, S. Res. 56 · 1911-12 · p. 699. View the original.
Even the paint makers testified. Ninety percent of finished paint was sold by merchants at crossroads and in towns under five thousand people. Kill those stores, and who sells paint?
S10
Parcel Post: Hearings, Senate Subcommittee on Parcel Post, S. Res. 56 · 1911-12 · p. 831 (Pa. State Grange). View the original.
The farmers sat on the other side of the room. The Pennsylvania State Grange wanted the government, in the chairman's words, to do the express business of the country. Asked directly, the Grange man answered: yes.
S08
Parcel Post: Hearings, Senate Subcommittee on Parcel Post, S. Res. 56 · 1911-12 · p. 611. View the original.
Senator Bristow of Kansas gave the merchants a history lesson. This tendency which you gentlemen are struggling against, you can not stop, any more than you could stop the rural delivery. Then he asked. Did the country merchants oppose rural delivery too? A great many of them did, Corey admitted.
S12
Post Office Appropriation Act, sec. 8 · 37 Stat. 557 · Aug. 24, 1912. View the original.
Congress sided with the farmers. Section eight of the post office appropriation act, August nineteen twelve: fourth-class mail would now embrace farm and factory products, up to eleven pounds.
S14
Post Office Appropriation Act, sec. 8 · 37 Stat. 558 · Aug. 24, 1912. View the original.
Effective January first, nineteen thirteen.
The parcels came
R009 Stage driver unloading packages at general store, Pie Town, New Mexico
Stage driver unloading packages at general store, Pie Town, New Mexico · Russell Lee, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
And the parcels came. At Pie Town, New Mexico, the stage brought the packages to the general store's own porch.
R010 Stage driver making out express receipt in front of general store, Pie Town, New Mexico
Stage driver making out express receipt in front of general store, Pie... · Russell Lee, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
The driver made out the receipts out front. The store had become the local depot for the thing that was supposed to kill it.
R008 Vegetable and fruit trucker in front of general store, Pie Town, New Mexico. Grapefruit which he brings in is from Arizona
Vegetable and fruit trucker in front of general store, Pie Town, New... · Russell Lee, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Because the prophecy did not land on schedule. Twenty-five years after parcel post, government photographers found the country store alive everywhere they pointed a camera.
Saturday
![Farmers in front of store on Saturday afternoon in Cave City [actually Horse Cave], Kentucky](img/R071.jpg)
R071 Farmers in front of store on Saturday afternoon in Cave City [actually Horse Cave], Kentucky
Farmers in front of store on Saturday afternoon in Cave City [actually... · Marion Post Wolcott, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Horse Cave, Kentucky. A Saturday afternoon in nineteen forty.
![[Untitled photo, possibly related to: Farmers in front of store on Saturday afternoon in Cave City [actually Horse Cave], Kentucky]](img/R070.jpg)
R070 [Untitled photo, possibly related to: Farmers in front of store on Saturday afternoon in Cave City [actually Horse Cave], Kentucky]
[Untitled photo, possibly related to: Farmers in front of store on... · Marion Post Wolcott, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Marion Post Wolcott spent the afternoon photographing the farmers in front of the stores.
R072 Waiting in front of the grocery store on Saturday. Jackson, Breathitt County, Kentucky
Waiting in front of the grocery store on Saturday. Jackson, Breathitt... · Marion Post Wolcott, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Jackson, Kentucky, in Brethitt County. Waiting in front of the store on Saturday.
R082 Going home from the store on Saturday. Jackson, Kentucky
Going home from the store on Saturday. Jackson, Kentucky · Marion Post Wolcott, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Going home from the store on Saturday.
R080 Mountain woman bringing home supplies from the store on Burton's Fork off Middle Fork of the Kentucky River. Breathitt County, Kentucky
Mountain woman bringing home supplies from the store on Burton's Fork... · Marion Post Wolcott, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
A woman carrying the week's supplies home along Burton's Fork, off the Middle Fork of the Kentucky River.
R038 Game of penny-ante in general store near New Iberia. This store is the social center of the immediate community
Game of penny-ante in general store near New Iberia. This store is the... · Russell Lee, 1938 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Near New Iberia, Louisiana, a penny-ante game in the store. The caption calls it the social center of the immediate community.
R055 Free haircut on Saturday morning in W.M. Scott's general store. Farrington, Chatham County, North Carolina
Free haircut on Saturday morning in W.M. Scott's general store.... · Marion Post Wolcott, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Farrington, North Carolina. A free haircut, Saturday morning, in W.M. Scott's general store.
R046 Men discussing the election on steps of general store in Stem, Granville County, North Carolina
Men discussing the election on steps of general store in Stem,... · Jack Delano, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Stem, North Carolina. The election, argued on the store steps.
R065 Mountaineers "spelling" themselves in front of store, Pikeville, Tennessee
Mountaineers "spelling" themselves in front of store, Pikeville, Tennessee · Carl Mydans, 1936 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Pikeville, Tennessee. Mountaineers, in the caption's word, spelling themselves in front of the store.
R074 Farmers' wives gather at Mrs. Clement's grocery store to exchange gossip. Stem, Granville County, North Carolina
Farmers' wives gather at Mrs. Clement's grocery store to exchange... · Jack Delano, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
And the farm wives at Mrs. Clement's grocery in Stem. The caption says: to exchange gossip.
R057 Meeker County, Minnesota. Farmers' dance in crossroads store
Meeker County, Minnesota. Farmers' dance in crossroads store · John Vachon, 1942 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Meeker County, Minnesota, nineteen forty-two. A farmers' dance, held in the crossroads store.
R058 Meeker County, Minnesota. Music supplied by two Meeker County farmers for dance at crossroads store
Meeker County, Minnesota. Music supplied by two Meeker County farmers... · John Vachon, 1942 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
The band: two Meeker County farmers.
R001 Fair at Albany, Vermont. The old timers take to the steps of the general store
Fair at Albany, Vermont. The old timers take to the steps of the... · Carl Mydans, 1936 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
At the fair in Albany, Vermont, the old timers took to the steps of the general store.
The storekeeper
R037 Owner of general store slicing baloney. Jarreau, Louisiana
Owner of general store slicing baloney. Jarreau, Louisiana · Russell Lee, 1938 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
The man behind the counter. The owner, slicing baloney.
R044 Mr. Keele slicing bacon in the general store at Pie Town, New Mexico
Mr. Keele slicing bacon in the general store at Pie Town, New Mexico · Russell Lee, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Mr. Keele at Pie Town, slicing bacon.
R043 Mr. Keele looks over accounts of the general store. Pie Town, New Mexico
Mr. Keele looks over accounts of the general store. Pie Town, New Mexico · Russell Lee, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Mr. Keele over the store's books.
R064 West Danville, Vermont. Mr. Hasings in his general store, figuring up, says, "You can't carry on a business, especially nowadays, without a lot of book work. But whether it is for income tax or making up price lists for cost of living comodities, it is all a part of keeping our government going so we can win the war and have the kind of world we want to have"
West Danville, Vermont. Mr. Hasings in his general store, figuring up,... · Fritz Henle, 1942 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
In Vermont, Mr. Hastings was photographed figuring up. You can't carry on a business, he said, especially nowadays, without a lot of book work.
R062 West Danville, Vermont. Mr. Hastings in his general store taking an order over the telephone
West Danville, Vermont. Mr. Hastings in his general store taking an... · Fritz Henle, 1942 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Taking an order over the telephone.
R039 Negro woman trading sack of pecans for groceries in general store. Jarreau, Louisiana
Negro woman trading sack of pecans for groceries in general store.... · Russell Lee, 1938 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
At the same store, a Black woman traded a sack of pecans for groceries. The store took what the farm had to give.
R050 Mr. R.B. Whitley visiting in his general store. He is president of the bank and owns and runs practically all of the town, he is a big landowner, owns Whitley-Davis Farm and a cotton mill in Clayton. He said he cut down the trees and pulled the stumps out of the main street and was the first man in that town of Wendell. Wake County, North Carolina
Mr. R.B. Whitley visiting in his general store. He is president of the... · Marion Post Wolcott, 1939 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
At Wendell, North Carolina, R.B. Whitley visits his own store. The caption notes he is also president of the bank.
R061 Trampas, Taos County, New Mexico. The keeper of the general store
Trampas, Taos County, New Mexico. The keeper of the general store · John Collier, 1943 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
The keeper of the general store at Trampas, New Mexico.
R059 Chacon, New Mexico. United States forest ranger in the general store issuing grazing permits to Spanish-American ranchers
Chacon, New Mexico. United States forest ranger in the general store... · John Collier, 1943 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Some days the store was the government. At Chacon, New Mexico, a federal forest ranger issued grazing permits at the counter.
R051 Selling drugs and medicines in doctor's office in rear of country store. Faulkner County, Arkansas
Selling drugs and medicines in doctor's office in rear of country... · Marion Post Wolcott, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
In Faulkner County, Arkansas, the doctor's office was in the rear of the country store. Medicines sold up front.
R052 Patient waiting in the doctor's office, rear of country store. Faulkner County, Arkansas
Patient waiting in the doctor's office, rear of country store.... · Marion Post Wolcott, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
The waiting room.
The rolling store
R069 Rolling store which goes from door to door selling groceries, hardware, drygoods, drugs, and a variety of household and farm supplies. Near Montezuma, Georgia
Rolling store which goes from door to door selling groceries,... · Marion Post Wolcott, 1939 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Where the customers could not come to the store, the store went out to them. Georgia, nineteen thirty-nine: the rolling store, selling groceries, hardware, dry goods and drugs, door to door.
R076 Inside a rolling store. Heard County, Georgia
Inside a rolling store. Heard County, Georgia · Jack Delano, 1941 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Inside. Shelves, on wheels.
R079 A "rolling store" salesman carrying sack of flour into rural home. Coffee County, Alabama
A "rolling store" salesman carrying sack of flour into rural home.... · Marion Post Wolcott, 1939 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
In Coffee County, Alabama, the salesman carried the flour right to the kitchen.
The count
V02
Census of Business 1935, Retail Distribution, Preliminary U.S. Summary · Table 1. View the original.
All this time, the census kept counting. Nineteen thirty-five: sixty-six thousand five hundred eighty-nine general stores with food.
V03
Census of Business 1939, Retail Trade, U.S. Summary, Table 2A. View the original.
Nineteen thirty-nine, the year of the Saturday photographs: thirty-nine thousand six hundred eighty-eight. Down by nearly two-thirds in ten years.
R016 J. Huffman of Grassy Butte, North Dakota, has been forced to close his general store on account of the drought
J. Huffman of Grassy Butte, North Dakota, has been forced to close his... · Arthur Rothstein, 1936 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Some of the closings made it into the photographic record with names attached. J. Huffman of Grassy Butte, North Dakota, forced to close his store by the drought.
R073 Abandoned store. Advance, Alabama
Abandoned store. Advance, Alabama · Walker Evans, · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Walker Evans found this one already empty, at Advance, Alabama.
R077 The remains of what used to be a prosperous store in the once-thriving community of Liberty Hill. Heard County, Georgia
The remains of what used to be a prosperous store in the once-thriving... · Jack Delano, 1941 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Jack Delano photographed the remains of, quote, what used to be a prosperous store, in the once-thriving community of Liberty Hill, Georgia.
R025 Abandoned hotel and general store in ghost lumber town of Jennings, Maryland
Abandoned hotel and general store in ghost lumber town of Jennings,... · Arthur Rothstein, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Jennings, Maryland. The hotel and the general store of a lumber town whose timber was gone.
V04
1948 Census of Business, Retail Trade, Table 1C - U.S., by Kind of Business: 1948, 1939, and 1929. View the original.
After the war, the bureau printed the whole story as one row. General stores. Nineteen twenty-nine: one hundred four thousand and eighty-nine. Nineteen thirty-nine: thirty-nine thousand six hundred eighty-eight. Nineteen forty-eight: twenty-one thousand five hundred fifty-seven.
V09
1954 Census of Business, Retail Trade, Summary Statistics, Appendix, kind-of-business definitions. View the original.
The bureau still had to define the category for its readers. Usually located in rural communities. Usually known as country general stores.
V06
1954 Census of Business, Retail Trade, Summary Statistics, Table 1A. View the original.
Nineteen fifty-four: seventeen thousand seven hundred and one.
V07
1958 Census of Business, Retail Trade, Summary Statistics, Table 2 · SIC 5393. View the original.
Nineteen fifty-eight: nine thousand four hundred seventy-four with a payroll. The smallest stores no longer got their own printed total.
V08
1963 Census of Business, Retail Trade, Table 2 - U.S., by Kind of Business · general merchandise group. View the original.
Then read the nineteen sixty-three table. Department stores. Variety stores. General merchandise. The country general store is not on the form. The census had stopped counting it as a kind of business at all.
What replaced it
R066 A&P store in Somerset, Ohio
A&P store in Somerset, Ohio · Ben Shahn, 1938 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
What replaced it had been in the pictures for years. An A and P in Somerset, Ohio, nineteen thirty-eight.
R081 Signs on chain store window welcoming farmers to town during tobacco auction sale time
Signs on chain store window welcoming farmers to town during tobacco... · Marion Post Wolcott, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
A chain store window, welcoming the farmers to town at tobacco-auction time.
R034 A village consisting of a few houses, general store, and railroad station. Lamoille, Iowa
A village consisting of a few houses, general store, and railroad... · Arthur Rothstein, 1939 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
The store did not die of one thing. The catalog took a share. The car took the customer to town. The supermarket took the groceries. The census recorded no causes. Only the count.
R068 Soldiers resting at an abandoned store during maneuvers in Caroline County, Virginia
Soldiers resting at an abandoned store during maneuvers in Caroline... · Jack Delano, 1941 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
By nineteen forty-one the abandoned store was somewhere soldiers rested on maneuvers.
R078 This small store, owned by two Negroes for about forty years, is getting a last rush of business from the soldiers before they will have to move out to make room for the Army maneuver grounds. Caroline County, Virgninia
This small store, owned by two Negroes for about forty years, is... · Jack Delano, 1941 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
And a store two Black partners had kept for about forty years got what the caption calls a last rush of business. It came from the soldiers whose new maneuver grounds were about to take the land.
Still standing
R020 Crossroads store, post office. Sprott, Alabama
Crossroads store, post office. Sprott, Alabama · Walker Evans, · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Sprott, Alabama. Crossroads store and post office in one building. Walker Evans set it square in the frame, like a portrait.
R035 Old general store. Funkley, Minnesota
Old general store. Funkley, Minnesota · Russell Lee, 1937 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Funkley, Minnesota. Already called the old general store when Russell Lee stopped in nineteen thirty-seven.
R053 Melrose, Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana. Mulatto returning home after buying supplies at country store
Melrose, Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana. Mulatto returning home after... · Marion Post Wolcott, 1940 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
At Melrose, Louisiana, a rider carries the week's supplies home. In nineteen twelve the merchants told the Senate what was coming. They were wrong about the package, and right about the ending. Fifty years, written down step by step.
R014 Farmer's sled waiting outside the general store in Stowe, Vermont
Farmer's sled waiting outside the general store in Stowe, Vermont · Marion Post Wolcott, · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Thousands of the buildings are still standing, at crossroads that no longer need a name. If your people kept one, or you remember its last day, say so in the comments. Its twin already has an episode: the depot. It is on the channel.
R024 Country store on dirt road. Sunday afternoon. Note the kerosene pump on the right and the gasoline pump on the left. Rough, unfinished timber posts have been used as supports for porch roof. Negro men are sitting on the porch. Brother of store owner stands in doorway. Gordonton, North Carolina
Country store on dirt road. Sunday afternoon. Note the kerosene pump... · Dorothea Lange, 1939 · Library of Congress FSA/OWI · colorized 2026. View the original.
Sources
- Parcel Post: Hearings before the Subcommittee on Parcel Post of the Senate Committee on Post Offices and Post Roads, under S. Res. 56 (1911–12) — https://archive.org/details/cu31924030134989 - M. L. Corey (secretary, National Retail Hardware Association), sworn Dec. 12, 1911: "It is said a rural parcel post will benefit the country merchant. We doubt this" (p. 597); mail-order growth came "largely at the expense of the cross-roads stores, which closed their doors after vainly trying to exist after the loss of their local post office" (p. 597); the loss of the post office "undoubtedly did exert a very bad effect on what we call the cross-roads stores" (p. 600). - Senator Bristow to Corey, p. 611: "this tendency which you gentlemen are struggling against ... you can not stop ... any more than you could stop the rural delivery." - R. F. Somerville (Dayton), p. 488: the Germany account — "the mail-order houses and the big houses in the city have eaten them up." - Retailers' statement, pp. 597–598: parcel post "certainly will not benefit the wholesaler, the traveling man, hotel keeper, country newspaper, merchant, blacksmith, or town resident"; "$10 to every $1 of saving." - Allen W. Clark (paint manufacturers), p. 699: over 90 percent of finished paint sold through merchants "located on the crossroads or in the hamlets, the villages and the towns of less than 5,000 inhabitants." - John A. McSparran (Pennsylvania State Grange), p. 831: assents to "a governmental monopoly ... for the Government to do the express business of the country."
- Post Office Appropriation Act of Aug. 24, 1912, sec. 8, 37 Stat. 557–559 (fourth-class mail expanded to all matter up to eleven pounds; "shall go into effect January first, nineteen hundred and thirteen," p. 558) — https://archive.org/details/us_stat_37
- Census of Business 1935, Retail Distribution, Preliminary United States Summary — https://archive.org/details/censusofb1935unse - Table 1: General stores (with food), 66,589 (1935). - Table A (reproduced from the 1933 Retail Census, Vol. 1): Country general stores — 104,089 (1929); 85,839 (1933).
- Sixteenth Census (1940), Census of Business 1939, Retail Trade, U.S. Summary, Table 2A: General stores (with food), 39,688 — https://archive.org/details/sixteenthcensuso13unit
- 1948 Census of Business, Retail Trade, Table 1C (U.S., by kind of business, 1948, 1939 and 1929): General stores — 21,557 (1948), 39,688 (1939), 104,089 (1929) — https://archive.org/details/1948censusofbusi03unse
- 1954 Census of Business, Retail Trade, Summary Statistics, Table 1A: General stores, 17,701; appendix definition "usually known as country general stores" — https://archive.org/details/1954censusofbusi01unse
- 1958 Census of Business, Retail Trade, Summary Statistics, Table 2 (SIC 5393): General stores, 9,474 with payroll (establishment totals for the smallest stores no longer published at this level) — https://archive.org/details/1958censusofbusi01unse
- 1963 Census of Business, Retail Trade, Vol. 1, Table 2: no "General stores" kind-of-business line; the general merchandise group lists department, variety, and general merchandise stores only — https://archive.org/details/1963censusofbusi11unse
- Photographs: FSA/OWI negatives, Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division, 1935–1943 (photographers Carl Mydans, Arthur Rothstein, Walker Evans, Russell Lee, Dorothea Lange, Marion Post Wolcott, Jack Delano, John Vachon, John Collier, Louise Rosskam, Fritz Henle, Herbert Mayer). Each on-screen credit carries the photographer's caption. The negatives are black and white; color was applied by computer in 2026 — a good guess, not a record.
- Census kind-of-business definitions shifted between censuses (1933 "country general stores"; 1935–1954 "general stores (with food)" / "general stores"; 1958 published with-payroll counts only). The 1948 census itself prints the 1929 figure as the comparable; the narration states counts as printed and notes the 1958 change.