The Hardcastle Store

The old store bears many of its original fixtures and fittings, including a tongue and groove counter, an 1873 safe, and shelving. Changes to the store building itself have been relatively minor, including a new front door and the removal of the coal stove that used to sit in the center of the shop floor. North of the store, on the same side of the road, there were two separate buildings which housed a grist mill and a Blacksmith. None of these survive today. A gas pump was installed in front of the store probably during the 1940s, where the gravel lot is now. This was later removed, and the underground tank remains covered up

Like many residents of the area, the Hardcastles grew and sold tobacco. One of the buildings featured on the property was a barn that predated the Hardcastle store. Here they stored the tobacco they grew, and the tobacco they bought from local farmers. Prior to the building of sturdy roads, tobacco’s weight meant the most practical way to transport the crop to market was via boat. The Barren River, flowing just below the store, was a viable transportation corridor until the construction of the Barren River dam in 1960.

Improved roads and transportation methods meant that the central roles the store played in the rural community started to fade by the 1960s, as more distant shopping opportunities became available to the store’s patrons. Stores like the Hardcastle Store provided a link to transition from subsistence farming to large-scale farming economies decades later. These country stores introduced farmers to goods produced outside the local realm. In the store, farmers, local craftsmen, and others could exchange goods in a cash-poor market via barter. 

Kentucky SP Hardcastle Store, The, National Archives Catalogue. Accessed December 15th 2020. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123852012.

Community Hub: The Hardcastle Store, Warren County, Ky, Gardens to Gables. Accessed December 15th 2020. http://www.gardenstogables.com/community-hub-the-hardcastle-store-warren-county-kentucky/.