MARTIN'S STORE, SAWYERVILLE, ALABAMA

I have learned that Martin's Store, which has been the centerpiece of Downtown Sawyerville, is to be demolished to make parking space for a new business that is to be opened. I will be sorry to see it go, but I suspect that it has declined to the point that it could not be salvaged.

It was built by Melton True Martin soon after the main highway, which used to run by the railroad tracks to the rear, was moved a block to the south, where it is now. My best guess is that the move  took place in the late 1920s. Before that move, the main road crossed the railroad 7 times between Greensboro and Sawyerville. After the move, the only time it crossed the railroad was a couple of miles west of Greensboro where what we always called the Overhead Bridge passed well above the tracks.

Before then, stores tended to front on the old main road and the railroad. Mr. M.T.’s original wooden store faced the old road and the depot. And after he built the new brick building facing the new road the old structure, which abutted the new one and was accessible through a heavy iron sliding door, was used for storage.

Right, Mr. M.T.'s brick store. Left., Murray Martin's original store. In between was where Callahan's Filling Station stood. Photo: 1972. dusk.

Mr. M.T. ran the store for many years, until age and infirmity intervened.  Murray Martin, Uncle Murray, married to my mother's middle sister, had clerked for M.T. when he was a young man, and later he purchased the store from his mentor and kinsman.

 Across the road to the left of the store was Emmet Callahan's filling station, and to the left of that, beyond a wide passageway where the little kids of the 1940s and 1950s liked to play, was Uncle Murray's original store, on the west side of which had been constructed an apartment where he and his family lived. Those structures are gone now.

When the store was built, it was one of the largest stores for a good ten miles in any direction, and there are tales of country people viewing it with great amazement. There was a large porch in front supported by tall brick pillars (you can still see the outline where the porch roof attached to the building). Some years ago the owner at the time had the porch taken down because it had become a hangout for the idle. I missed the porch, but I didn't miss the idle.

 But what I do miss is the brick on the column on the right that had been scraped down over the years by men sharpening their knives there. I wish I had thought to save that at the time.

The double front doors were set back, and on each side were large showcase windows, glass-paned on the front and on the inside, covered with tin now.

 

Scrubby trees and vines have grown up around the store. This picture was taken on the east side from where stood the Johnny Pickens establishment, a combination honky-tonk, butcher shop, barber shop, and general all-round entertainment center for the black citizens of the area. Behind the Pickens place was the ice house, also run by Johnny Pickens. Later on Pickens closed his business,and

some years after that it functioned briefly as a church for a small gathering of four people who would drive down from Tuscaloosa to worship. It sagged more and more over time, and early in the morning on September 13, 1979, it finally collapsed during Hurricane Frederic. But the old brick store continued to stand. to edit.

Vines grow up on the west side of the building as well, and in the spring and summer much of the front of the building is covered with Virginia creeper and honeysuckle

The roof has now given way. Possibly its collapse is related to the lack of much in the way of interior support for the roof, or perhaps it is simply time and weather taking their toll.

Below you can see the heavy metal double doors that barred the way to the old building, which was used for storage after the brick store opened. Those metal doors disappeared a couple of years ago.

That old building has been there all of my life and derelict for much of it. I will miss it when it is gone.