The Mast General Store is a store modeled after the general store

General store

A general store, general merchandise store, or village shop is a rural or small town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, sometimes in a small space, where people from the town and surrounding rural areas come to purchase all their general...

 concept from the 19th century. Today there are ten locations, including the original store located in Valle Crucis, North Carolina

Valle Crucis, North Carolina

Valle Crucis is an unincorporated community located in Watauga County, North Carolina, United States. The name of the town is Latin for "Vale of the Cross," a reference to a valley in the area where three streams converge to form a shape similar to an archbishop's cross...

, which is widely recognized as a historical landmark

Landmark

This is a list of landmarks around the world.Landmarks may be split into two categories - natural phenomena and man-made features, like buildings, bridges, statues, public squares and so forth...

. The store sells commodities, such as old-time hearth

Hearth

In common historic and modern usage, a hearth is a brick- or stone-lined fireplace or oven often used for cooking and/or heating. For centuries, the hearth was considered an integral part of a home, often its central or most important feature...

 and home goods, outdoor clothing and gear, footwear, work clothes, old-fashioned wind-up toys, regional books and music, honey, and more than 500 varieties of old-fashioned candy.

History

The building that would one day become the Mast General Store, was built in 1882 by Henry Taylor and opened in 1883. W.W. Mast purchased half interest in the store in 1897, and the store was renamed the "Taylor and Mast General Store". In 1913, Mast purchased the remaining half of Taylor's interest, and the business became known, as it is today, as the Mast General Store. The business stayed in the family through three generations until, in 1973, it was sold to a doctor from Atlanta

Atlanta, Georgia

Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...

 and a professor from Appalachian State University

Appalachian State University

Appalachian State University is a comprehensive , public, coeducational university located in Boone, North Carolina, United States. Appalachian State, also referred to as Appalachian, App State, or simply App, is the sixth largest institution in the University of North Carolina system...

.
The business closed its doors in 1977. It would remain closed until John and Faye Cooper purchased and reopened it in June 1980. In 1996, the Mast Store became an employee-owned company.
The first store outside of the Valle Crucis area was opened in 1988 in Boone

Boone, North Carolina

Boone is a town located in the Blue Ridge Mountains of western North Carolina, United States. Boone's population was reported as 17,122, as of 2010...

. It would be followed by three more stores, for a total of seven Mast General Stores in North Carolina. A Waynesville

Waynesville, North Carolina

Waynesville is a town in and the county seat of Haywood County, North Carolina, United States. It is the largest town in Haywood County and the largest in Western North Carolina west of Asheville. Waynesville is located about or 50 km southwest of Asheville between the Great Smoky and Blue...

 location opened in 1991, Hendersonville

Hendersonville, North Carolina

Hendersonville is a city in Henderson County, North Carolina, USA, southeast of Asheville. In 1900, 1,917 persons lived in Hendersonville; in 1910, 2,818; and in 1940, 5,381 people lived here. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 12,223, up fivefold in one century. It is the county...

  in August 1995, Asheville

Asheville, North Carolina

Asheville is a city in and the county seat of Buncombe County, North Carolina, United States. It is the largest city in Western North Carolina, and the 11th largest city in North Carolina. The City is home to the United States National Climatic Data Center , which is the world's largest active...

 in 1999, and a smaller location in Blowing Rock

Blowing Rock, North Carolina

Blowing Rock is a town in North Carolina, USA, situated in both Caldwell and Watauga counties. The population was 1,418 at the 2000 census. However, during the summer the town's population increases to about 10,000.]]\\...

 in March 2005. The Blowing Rock store has since closed. March 2003 would see the first opening of a store outside of North Carolina, with a store opened in Greenville, South Carolina

Greenville, South Carolina

-Law and government:The city of Greenville adopted the Council-Manager form of municipal government in 1976.-History:The area was part of the Cherokee Nation's protected grounds after the Treaty of 1763, which ended the French and Indian War. No White man was allowed to enter, though some families...

. The tenth, and newest, Mast General Store was opened on May 25, 2011 in Columbia, South Carolina

Columbia, South Carolina

Columbia is the state capital and largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina. The population was 129,272 according to the 2010 census. Columbia is the county seat of Richland County, but a portion of the city extends into neighboring Lexington County. The city is the center of a metropolitan...

.

Historical Recognition

The Valle Crucis Mast General Store was added to the National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

 on April 3, 1973. North Carolina has recognized the valley in which it is located as the first Rural Historic District. It also won the L. Vincent Lowe, Jr. Business Award from Preservation North Carolina in 1998. This award is given to businesses that make special efforts to assist and/or promote historic preservation in North Carolina

Green Power

The Mast General Store committed to purchasing 3.6 million kilowatt-hours per year of "Green Energy" in 2006. Traditional fossil fuel

Fossil fuel

Fossil fuels are fuels formed by natural processes such as anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms. The age of the organisms and their resulting fossil fuels is typically millions of years, and sometimes exceeds 650 million years...

 would create 750,000 pounds of carbon dioxide

Carbon dioxide

Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...

 to generate the same amount of electricity

Electricity

Electricity is a general term encompassing a variety of phenomena resulting from the presence and flow of electric charge. These include many easily recognizable phenomena, such as lightning, static electricity, and the flow of electrical current in an electrical wire...

. This commitment was part of a campaign by NCGreenPower to expand the use of renewable energy in North Carolina.