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Dedication of the W.S. Stout Store at the Butler Museum

The W.S. Stout Store at the Butler Museum TN

All photos and illustrations by Pat Johns ©2011 All Rights Reserved
See links to article references at the end of the article.

Memorial Day Weekend 2011

You can feel the old days as soon as you walk in the renovated W.S. Stout store on the grounds of the Butler Museum. Shelves and countertops filled with necessities and luxuries of their time. Lanterns, canned goods, soaps, tools, candy and Cracker Jacks™.

And then you hear the stories of those who used to shop here when this store was in "old Butler" and later in Pine Orchard.

Like the exhibits in the main museum, the visitor is taken back in time to a way of life long gone. It's hard to imagine that anyone would walk out of this renovated store and want to go to a Walmart.

This two-year project, which started with the generous donation of the building by Brian Kruger and Robert Ford, was the collective effort of the museum members, supporters and, just like the main museum, the dedicated labor of inmates from the Northeast Correctional facility.

The museum has shown the way of life of old Butler primarily by recreating its businesses; the barber shop, the post office, the diner and, now, the Stout Store. These are the places where members of the community met and found the basic services and goods needed for their lives.

The store was just over a mile northeast of the original town of Butler, near the Southern railroad tracks. The 1930 census listed Stanley Stout as the merchant in 1930. Forced to move by the Watauga Dam project, it was relocated to Highway 67 between present day Butler and Mountain City in 1948.

According to Herman Tester, museum board member, "Stanley Stout built the house when he moved his family here in 1948 and ran the store until his death. The Stout family, Doris and her husband John L. Dugger, ran the store after that. The Watsons who now have the newly built store across the road from the store site last ran the Stout Store."

A visit to the museum and any support you can provide are musts to anyone belonging to the Watauga Lake community. They are open on weekends in the summer and can be reached at (423) 768-3534 or (423) 768-2183. Leave a message if there no answer. Click here to see their website.