We are all familiar with D.E. Turner Hardware Store, a staple in downtown Mooresville for nearly 125 years and still thriving today.

D.E. Turner arrived in Mooresville in 1898 and began working at the Tomlinson and Co. Hardware Firm. Just a year later, in 1899, he and his father purchased the Hardware Store, and as the saying goes, the rest is history. The original D.E. Turner Hardware was located across the street from its present-day location, in the building where Famous Toastery now resides. In 1902, D.E. and his brother purchased land on the west side of Main Street and built the building where the hardware store still operates today.

What many people don’t realize is that they weren’t the only hardware store in town, nor were they the first. The town’s first hardware store opened 20 years earlier and was located only five doors down!

In 1880 W.C. Johnston, along with several partners, established a hardware store on the corner of Main St. and Moore Ave, where 202 North Main Fine Wines is located today. By the late 1880s, W.C. Johnston had bought out his partners and renamed the store W.C. Johnston and Co.. The two stores basically sold the same products.

Some might say, “So what? Mooresville had two hardware stores,” and I agree. Who cares? What I find interesting about this story is that W.C. Johnston and D.E. Turner would remain competitors for the next 85+ years! W.C. Johnston and Co. remained open until the late 1980s right across the street from Turners. Pretty impressive that two virtually identical businesses could both remain in business for over 100 years right across the street from each other. Were Turner and Johnston (or their heirs) good friends? Fierce competitors? Who knows? I’m sure there are a lot of stories out there slowly vanishing from memory.

I share that story in order to share this one. While most of us arrived in Mooresville long after W.C. Johnston had closed up shop in the late 80’s, there’s likely a familiarity that you can’t quite put your finger on. There’s a remnant from days gone by that we’ve driven by hundreds of times and probably questioned whether it was real or simply a made up decoration intended to covey a small town sense of nostalgia. The answer to that question is YES. The sign you’ve driven by so many times is very real and serves as a reminder of what business looked like in Mooresville 100 years ago. The sign, along with the entire wall, had been painted over at some point in the past but thanks to the Mooresville preservation Society it was carefully restored in 2019 and serves as a reminder of what once was.

*Disclaimer- These stories are accurate to the best of my understanding based on available information and stories that are shared with me. If you have additional details regarding anything you read here or suggestions for future topics I would love to hear from you. -M. Gibson