The Big Store ​

The Big Store - McCommons Funeral Home
Everything from the Cradle to the Grave
 
In 1900, the Big Store, the largest emporium between Atlanta and Augusta, was purchased by Mr. J.H. McCommons. He added a funeral home and caskets to the stock of dry goods, hardware, ready-to-wear, and millinery. In the dry goods section, women would sit at a counter on a stool and have all types of merchandise brought to them for inspection. Clerks were required to wear coats when they waited on customers. The Big Store rightly boasted that it sold “everything from the cradle to the grave”.
 
Out back, there was a large, manually-operated elevator attached to the building. It was part of the McCommons funeral business. Coffins stored upstairs were lowered onto a horse-drawn hearse that carried the departed to the cemetery at the end of the street. This oversized, outdoor dumbwaiter was also used to transport large items up to the second floor of the department store.
 
The upper level of the Big Store was the place to buy farm equipment, plows and even a brand new automobile, for there was always at least one car on display.
 
By 1936, W.H. McCommons, a licensed embalmer, installed his work area in a section of the upper floor. In later years, parts of the building became offices for doctors and lawyers, and even the town newspaper, The Herald Journal. Today the Big Store still forms the heart of the downtown, housing three separate businesses. Visitors to the second floor can still see the antique dumbwaiter.