About Me
THIS SITE HAS BEEN SET UP BY A FRIEND OF THE OWNERS OF R A FOUNTAIN GENERAL STORE AND ANY COMMUNICATIONS REGARDING BOOKINGS OR BUSINESS RELATED MATTERS SHOULD BE MADE DIRECTLY TO ALEX AT WWW.RAFOUNTAIN.COMIn Fountain, old general store gets new life By JEFF KENNEDY Reproduced here courtesy of the Wilson Daily Times. (Jan. 23, 2005) -- FOUNTAIN, N.C. -- It's hard to get lost in Fountain. With two roads leading into town - N.C. 258 and N.C. 222 - and a few sleepy streets nestled around their intersection, you don't need OnStar to get your bearings. But you can lose yourself for an hour or two, or maybe more, in the R.A. Fountain General Store and Internet Cafe. Named after the original general store that supplied the practical needs of the farming community bearing the name of the store's original proprietor, R.A. Fountain, the present day incarnation seeks to supply the less practical, but not less needed, items for mind and soul. No less general than its predecessor, general store is an appropriate name because it's hard to pigeonhole the store into any one category. It's a bookstore and a cafe; a live-music venue some nights. Antique store/consignment shop. Art gallery and weather station. And Internet cafe. Ice cream, homemade jams and imported cheeses are all options here, as well as fresh squeezed lemonades and orangeades. Eclectic is not a word you shy away from at R.A. Fountain. East Carolina University English professor Alex Albright and his wife, Elizabeth, opened the general store in November. It occupies the "better half" of a two-story building that was built in 1916 by R.A. Fountain. The building sits prominently at the intersection of N.C. 222 and N.C. 258 in downtown Fountain. Many years ago, the building was split into two stores. Smith-Yelverton Hardware last occupied the N.C. 258 side. The other side, where the general store is now, was in recent years Owens Hardware. The Albrights first bought the Smith-Yelverton Hardware side in 1995 after noticing the building as they drove through Fountain from Greenville, where they then lived. It was the wide expanse of the window-filled second floor of the building that enthralled the Albrights and perhaps first sparked a notion in Alex for a place for live music. "It looked like a great huge ballroom," Elizabeth said. In 2001, the Albrights bought a house in Fountain - one formerly owned by R.A. Fountain. Choosing the peaceful quiet of small town life to raise their son, they wanted a safe place where kids could ride their bikes in the street, Albright said. While using the Smith-Yelverton side to store their extra belongings and things they had picked up at estate sales, the opportunity arose last May to purchase the other half of the building. Having once worked in a bookstore in Athens, Ga., and possessing a knack for bringing people together, Albright decided to turn this half into a business. "It's been something he has been interested in for a long time," Elizabeth said. "It reflects his eclecticism and interest in a lot of different things. ... He had to try it out; otherwise, he would have always wanted to." "It doesn't remind me of any other place I've ever been before," said Landy Spain, who works in Albright's place as general manager. Inside the store, you might stop in for coffee, but you'll inevitably be pulled aside to take a closer look at some object that has caught your eye. A lime green 1950s-era GE radio or a photo of a falling-down barn, leaning up against a grain silo as if it's taking a break. The store mixture is eccentric and eclectic, nostalgic and soulful, and sometimes just downright quirky. A metal contraption on wheels near the area of the store where musicians play is not for sale. It has the head of a ram, complete with horns, and a wooden saddle. Supposedly, in its former life with a private society somewhere, it was used as a "goat" for new initiates "to ride." "Someone brought it by who thought it would look good in the store," Albright said. Outside the store, the New York Times is sold next to The Wilson Daily Times and the Daily Reflector. It's not even a day behind. The general store reflects Albright's interest in eastern North Carolina. A section of the bookstore is dedicated to eastern North Carolina writers. Books by Allan Gurganus, Reynolds Price, Kaye Gibbons sit alongside works by other lesser known North Carolina authors including New Bern author Janet Lembke, Marjorie Hudson, ECU professor Peter McCook and Barton College writer-in-residence Jim Clark. Artistic work from the Snow Hill-based Contentnea Creek Artist Guild adorns the store window display and other nooks. Albright draws musicians from eastern North Carolina as well. The general store stayed booked with live music in December -- Earl Teel of Grifton and Donald Underwood Thompson of Kinston, Lucama recording artist Lightnin' Wells, Elm City songwriter Chet Nichols and Adam Stone of Nashville, Tarboro bluesman George Higgs. Even the food has an eastern North Carolina flavor. Jams and preserves made by Gary Thompson of Greenville won first place ribbons at the Pitt County Fair. The ribbons are there to prove it. Ice cream made at Jones Fruit Farm in Snow Hill is served in cups for $1.50 each. Bringing a new life to an old building has been a reward in and of itself for Albright. His general store is open for business and for memories. When older Fountain residents sometimes drop by, forgotten store memories are jarred. "They don't see the store for what it is now," Albright said. "They start telling me stuff from another period." Preserving the building with a new use preserves not only the building but also the building's history by keeping it on people's minds and on their lips. "When buildings disappear, their history often goes away," Albright said. So far, the store is off to a good start. If the store were somewhere else besides Fountain, its success might be more assured. In a town of 300, there is not a lot of walk-by traffic. But because it's in Fountain is precisely why Albright has chosen to do what he's doing. Albright grew up in Graham, a small town in Alamance County, and knows the value of living in a small town. But he also knows a small town's challenges -- such as keeping its businesses and keeping its children from moving somewhere else. Across E. Wilson Street, the sunken roof and faded lettering of the former Fountain Motor Company occupies the other most prominent corner in downtown -- a reminder of decline juxtaposed against the Albrights' effort at revitalization. Speaking of his son outside his store, Albright said, "I would love to see this town turn into a place that he wouldn't want to leave the day he came of age and graduated from high school."
