The General Store

Back when there were no chain stores, convenience stores or online stores, where did a person go to buy their necessities? The general store, of course! 

If you were to travel back in time to 1890 and walk into a general store of that era, you might think it looked like an old-fashioned version of a big-box store. That would be accurate because a general store carried a large variety of items.

General stores became a necessity for many rural families. Erected in fast-growing towns or at major crossroads, general stores provided merchandise and goods that families could not produce themselves. As the town or community grew, the general store would become more than just a store. It often became the post office, a social and community message center, an exchange bank or possibly a forum for men in the community. This was where one could buy hard-to-find goods such as shoes, bolts of cloth, nails, sugar, flour, kerosene, cured meat and leather.

As the influx of phosphate miners came into the new town of Newberry, there was an increase of traffic on the old Gainesville road that ran in front of the farmstead. This prompted Mr. Dudley to open a general store around 1889, and a post office was added a few years later. Originally located about 100 feet southwest of the farmhouse, along the old road to Gainesville, it was moved to its present location near the potato cellar in 1915.

The Dudley General Store sold many things such as medicine, canned goods, school books, grits, sugar, candies, crackers, pots, hammers and lamps.

If you visit the restored general store at Dudley Farm, we challenge you to name all the items displayed there! We have a lot to choose from, and many of the items were in the store when it was given to the state of Florida by Myrtle Dudley in 1983. Come take a look.