The General Store That Cultivated a Community One Friday at a Time

The General Store That Cultivated a Community One Friday at a Time
Phipps Country Store. Salena Zito
Salena Zito
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LANSING, North Carolina—Nestled in the rolling farmland in Ashe County is a tidy white-clad building whose wistful charm beckons you to stop. It’s the kind of place you may only spot if you set your navigation app to avoid highways. And even if you’re trying to make good time down Silas Creek Road, you will find it impossible not to stop here.
Across the very top of the storefront reads “Phipps General Store,” accompanied by signs for Schwan’s Ice Cream and one noting that it is the Silas Creek United States Post Office. All around it are barns and postcard-perfect farmland. It is only upon closer inspection that you learn this is now the former post office and that the store is closed. Or is it?
Salena Zito
Salena Zito
Author
Salena Zito has held a long, successful career as a national political reporter. Since 1992, she has interviewed every U.S. president and vice president, as well as top leaders in Washington, including secretaries of state, speakers of the House and U.S. Central Command generals. Her passion, though, is interviewing thousands of people across the country. She reaches the Everyman and Everywoman through the lost art of shoe-leather journalism, having traveled along the back roads of 49 states.
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