Simply Posh

The building that houses Simply Posh Boutique is located a little north of A&G Restaurant and is directly north of Maryville Florist, at 216 N. Main St. It has served the Maryville community in various ways and housed several different businesses before its current incarnation as a women's clothing boutique. For instance, in 1903 it was a racket store, which sold a variety of different merchandise. In some ways, its history as a racket store connects the building to today's boutique and connects the past to the present as both stores offered a wide assortment of goods.

Simply Posh Boutique opened up in August 6th, 2021. This business offers carefully chosen clothing items suitable for mothers and daughters of all ages, and an online store is also available for people who cannot visit in person.

This building first appeared on Sanborn maps for the city of Maryville in 1886 when it served as a confectionary and shared the block with a drugstore, book & jewelry store, clothing & photo store, dry goods store, a barber, and a carpet shop. Confectioners were "sweet shops" or candy stores, and several were located in Maryville at the turn of the 20th century. The 1891 Sanborn map provides less detail for this block, only listing the carpet store and drug store, but nothing is identified in the 216. N. Main St. location.

By 1900 the building had become a racket store. According to the Encyclopedia of North Carolina, racket stores were similar to the five-and-dime stores that came a couple of decades late. They sold everything from shoes and hardware to clothing and groceries. At that time, only the drug store just to the south of the building and the clothing story & barber shop at the very north of the block remained the same from 1886. All other businesses on this stretch had changed (from south to north: drugstore, racket store, drug store, tin shop & hardware store, notions & wall paper store, barber shop & clothing store with a lodge meeting space located above.

Like some of these other businesses, the racket store at 216 N. Main St. was short lived because the building was vacant by 1909 and most of the other buildings alongside it had also changed. For instance, the long-standing drug store to its south was now a shoe store & cobbler, and at least one other building on the block was also vacant. However, two other racket stores do appear in 1909 in the section of the block just south of the alley way, both located in what is now the A&G Restaurant front parking lot.

As this exploration of the Sanborn maps reveals, Maryville was a lively and changing community in the late 1800s and early 1900s. This evolution continued through the 1900s and into the present day as the relatively short tenure of Simply Bosh Boutique at its 216 N. Main St. location demonstrates.

Simply Bosh Boutique, https://www.visitmaryville.org/simply-posh/

North Carolina Encyclopedia, https://www.ncpedia.org/racket-stores#:~:text=Racket%20stores%20were%20individually%20owned,five%2Dand%2Ddime%20store

Sanborn Maps: 1886, 1891, 1900, 1909, https://dl.mospace.umsystem.edu/mu/islandora/object/mu%3A138882