Harold's Grocery / Roy Field's Store

Photo from the early 1980s. The store was located on the southeast corner of West Street and 87 in Pittsboro. (There's a carwash in that location now.)

Commenters on earlier posts remember Dwight Womble running the store, and buying minnows, crickets and worms to go fishing with. They described it as a small general store with snacks, drinks, milk, bread and some canned groceries, and noted that it was a place for folks to catch up on the latest Pittsboro gossip. Others recalled that people of color did not feel welcome there. The store was later owned by Harold Williams--hence the "Harold's Grocery" on the sign in the photo.

From The Architectural Heritage of Chatham County, NC:

"The Roy Fields Store is one of many small stores built for automobile traffic in the 1920s and 1930s along the state's emerging highways. Sited with its gable to the road, the store is built of brick, with its metal roof hidden by a stepped parapet storefront."

This kind of facade became popular for commercial architecture during the early 20th century. Note that the absence of windows on the sides of the building make it possible to have long rows of shelving along the inside walls.

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