The T.B. Sutton General Store in Granville known for providing people a glimpse into the past and its weekly bluegrass shows is celebrating 100 years this year.
Granville Museum President Randall Clemons said T.B. Sutton bought the store in 1925 and took the shop to another level.
“It was truly a Walmart of its day,” Clemons said. “There was nothing that he did not sell including hardware, toys, a full line of paint, he had a barbershop in the store, he had an insurance agency in the store, he sold caskets, he had a food counter, and so it was a one-stop shop for our community.”
Clemons said in 1967 when Cordell Hull Lake came to the area many families left and Granville became a ghost town causing T.B. Sutton to close his store in 1970. Some 30 years later T.B. Sutton’s grandkids sold the store to a man named Harold Sutton who was of no kin to T.B. Sutton. Clemons said Harold Sutton donated the store to the Granville Museum in 2007 and the store has turned back the clock and has found success ever since.
“We were a group of 10 volunteers operating a little museum,” Clemons said. “It was a wonderful gift. We didn’t know anything about the store or didn’t know anything about music but we decided to give it a whirl and we engaged 50 other volunteers to help us and we opened our journey which has been extremely successful.”
Clemons said Sutton gave the store to the Granville Museum with two provisions that still hold true to this day. Those provisions are the store must be operated Wednesday through Saturday and that on Saturday night there would be a bluegrass show. Clemons said Bluegrass was one of the Herald Sutton’s provisions as the first performer at Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry Jesse Donald “Uncle Jimmy” Thompson was from the Granville community.
“We had started a bluegrass festival here in Uncle Jimmy’s memory and so Herald had invited some of the bluegrass bands in to perform and that’s what started the bluegrass music here,” Clemons said. “He knew that there was an opportunity for that and he began to do bluegrass music twice a month on Saturday nights so he wanted to see that carry on.”
Clemons said the store has made Granville what it is today. Clemons said the store attracts many tourists as it gives people a great glimpse into what most people would consider a simpler and slower time. Clemons said as a result of the store Granville now has 10 additional historic museums.
The store was actually built in the 1880s.
