Damascus General Store modeled after an old-time country store

DAMASCUS, Va. – Overgrown and rundown, the empty Damascus Hosiery Mill on South Shady Avenue was long considered an eyesore. But the landmark of the town’s industrial past has undergone a three-year renovation and has a new lease on life – as a piece of Southwest Virginia’s growing creative economy.

“People that visit Damascus and people that live in Damascus need something to do here in Damascus,” said Kelly Heaton, a seventh-grade teacher who brought a longtime dream to reality in the Damascus General Store, which she owns with her husband, Jeremiah. “It’s not complicated. You can go and enjoy yourself, and it’s family.”

Modeled after an old-time country store, and located across from the Appalachian Trail Days campground, the Damascus Country Store opens its doors for the first time at 10 a.m. today, with bluegrass music beginning at 7 p.m.

Though Kelly Heaton said she first envisioned the project as a cross between a frontier trading post and Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, the couple settled on lining the walls with specialty sodas, filling the central room with three tons of candy and selling crafts and assorted merchandise – including socks, in honor of the building’s history.

Kelly Heaton said she’s always loved general stores. Initially, her husband bought the old hosiery mill to repair and resell, she said – but she saw the 11,000-square-foot building as an opportunity to live a dream.

“This property has impacted the lives of a lot of people when it was operating as a hosiery mill,” Jeremiah Heaton said. “So we hope that the property can reach the people of Damascus in the same way it did as a factory, except in its present form: entertainment.”

While there is a tourism aspect to the business in a town centered on recreational trails, Jeremiah Heaton said, the primary goal is to provide year-round family-friendly entertainment for local residents.

Chase Johner, who is running the store’s music stage, said the region is a draw for musicians because there’s always somebody to pick with. A professional mandolin player who has toured the world, Johner returned home to Smyth County to get married in the music-rich hills of Southwest Virginia.

“You’ve got the Mast General Store thing going on in here and the Floyd Country Store going on in there,” Johner said of the Damascus General Store. “I think it’s going to be awesome.”

Mast General Store is a chain that sells clothing, outdoor gear and household goods and began with a historic general store in North Carolina. Floyd Country Store also is a historic community store, reborn as a music venue on the Crooked Road, a music heritage trail that runs across Southwest Virginia.

“I’m glad somebody else thinks it’s a good model,” said Jackie Crenshaw, who owns the Floyd Country Store with her husband, Woody.

“People love live music. They love something authentic that comes from the heart, and that’s what you find in a lot of these small venues. … I hope to see many more of them.”

The Heatons said they too hope to become a venue on the Crooked Road.

But for now, Kelly Heaton is happy for the chance to offer an experience of “stepping back in time to a simpler life.”

“Next school year, if this works out, I’ll be here full-time,” she said, “which is what I’d like to be able to do.”

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