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On the Square: Where have the merchants gone?

By CAROLYN CARY

In the past 38 years I can remember eating breakfast “On The Square” in Fayetteville, buying bread and milk, or buying a hammer and nails. The handy stores were located on the west side of the historic town square.

On the south side I can remember buying clothes, car insurance and renewing my driver’s license.

The Griggs sisters lived on the east side, in a lovely gray house that sat right on the corner. A rose arbor sat in back of the house.

The sheriff’s department with jail cells was housed on the north side along with the board of education building. The Fayetteville City Hall sat next to the sheriff’s department and a small jail was in the back of the building. Next to the jail was the Burks Hotel, and it was such a delight to visit Sarah Burks Allen who was born and reared there.

At the “old courthouse” located in the center of town I paid my taxes, looked up historical records, and sat with other reporters on election night on its third floor. Sometimes we sat there all night, but that’s another story.

I’m fully aware that those good ol’ days are gone forever. I have to question, though, the current situation.

Along with the departure of being able to buy groceries or clothes on the square has also gone common sense.

It is almost amusing that the current city fathers have enacted so many new rules and regulations trying to “preserve” the historic downtown and yet let unsightly scenes stay in place for us “old timers” to decry and those passing through town to not want to stop.

This is the first time in nearly four decades I have seen old sheets hanging in windows, and empty buildings with weeds growing all around them.

We seem to be more concerned with giving a hard time to a business that has been here for 40 years and is trying to build a $2 million dollar facility or giving a hard time to a fraternal organization that has been in place for over 50 years.

Yes, there needs to be a degree of planning and zoning control, and, no, I wouldn’t want to see a just “anything” be situated on the town square.

I would just like to have breakfast again and sit facing “my” courthouse, or stop for an ice cream cone in the evening.

And to know that the applicable city departments are busy trying to entice new businesses into the empty buildings, not clamping down so hard no one is interested.