Brooklyn Store and Post Office

Brooklyn. Once a defining feature of rural America, the general store is rapidly becoming an endangered species. Such buildings formerly dotted the countryside with regularity. Most, however, have vanished, and most remaining ones are abandoned. That at the tiny hamlet of Brooklyn is an unusually early example, built around 1850 by William Easley as the successor of an earlier establishment. Easley later was associated with Beverly Barksdale II, and after 1855 they operated the store in conjunction with the nearby Brooklyn Tobacco Factory, of which Barksdale was a partner. The business along with the post office was run by Barksdale's son when it closed in 1903. The building eventually was converted to a dwelling but without significant alteration to its interior which preserves a number of its early fittings including shelving. A rehabilitation ~of 1994-95 rescued the store from threatening deterioration. (41-07) VLR: 10/18/95: NHHP: 01/22/96

This information is provided by TheVirginia Department of Historic Resources
and is being republished here with the consent of
the Gazette-Virginian & the Halifax County Chamber of Commerce Tourism Committee.