Nearly 40 changes have been made in the past 100 years in the types of businesses that are housed around the courthouse square in Fayetteville. Generally speaking, very few new buildings have been constructed, but walls and doorways have changed back and forth numerous times.

Let's start with the northwest corner, which now is the city parking lot. At one time the home of the L. G. Jenkins family sat here. He ran the Redwine Store across the street, where the Holiday Inn now sits. After the house was demolished, it served as the Garner Service Station.

The Redwine Store was housed in a two-story building. Upstairs Dr. George Wallis had his office. When this building was demolished, Harry Redwine build a Ford agency on the spot, with a garage in the back. Upstairs housed a Masonic Lodge and R. J. Dorsey operated a black funeral parlor. To the east sat the Burks Hotel, built in 1906 and taken down in 1977. The Holiday Inn now occupies the spot.

On the northeast corner, now occupied by the sanctuary of the Fayetteville First United Methodist Church, sat the Griggs home, which existed until the early 1970s.

There were never any businesses on the east side of the courthouse.

Before businesses occupied the southside, homes were there, facing the southside of the courthouse. When the clock tower was added to the courthouse building in the 1880s, the homeowners decided they wanted to say they faced the "front" of the courthouse, and to this day it is referred to as the front of the building. Until this time, it was a moot point.

On the southside, let's start with Jackson Insurance, on the east corner.

Judge W. B. Hollingsworth built this facility and had his law office here. He also served as the cashier of The Bank of Fayetteville. He built his home in 1906 just a short block away on Lanier Avenue, by the Fayetteville First Baptist Church. This home was moved 1/3 mile south in the late 1990s and is owned by the city of Fayetteville for rental purposes.

Above what is now Jackson Insurance, a movie theater existed in the 1920s. Dr. T. J. Busey, Sr. had his first medical office here, after relocating from Tyrone. During the 1960s to the 1980s, Tom Jones had his law office above Jackson Insurance.

One of the businesses on the southside was a barber shop run by Ben Hand. Merl Brown operated a variety store at one time about the middle of the block. Ed Dixon had a drug store here at one time, and there was a hardware store next to Ed Dixon. McRae Communications is located there now.

The entire block on the southside was built by the Blalock brothers, A.O. and S.T. between 1900 and 1910. At the far western corner, they had a bank, The Bank of Fayetteville, which operated from 1898 to the late 1920s. The bank building was later the Mask Tire Company, and they used the vault room to store tires. At the present time, the Town Square Jewelers occupies the building.

Also occupying businesses on the southside were Barney Harrell, who had a mercantile store about 1912, and later his son, Roy, had a feed and seed store on the western side of the square.

G. W. Masters had a feed store and A.B. Hooper had a jewelry store in this section.

Alford's operated a mercantile store on the western end of the southside, now occupied by an art gallery. It operated from the 1930s to the 1950s, when Don McElroy opened a furniture store. It sat here until 1989 when a new facility was built on Ga. Highway 54 East.

About 1931, L.A. Ingram had a general store on the southside.
Also operating a restaurant in this area were Henry and Rachel Crews, who later had one on the western side of the square.

Also occupying the southside at one time was Whitey Dettmering. He had come to town with a circus, met a Fayette County girl, got married and settled down here. One of his sons, Jack Dettmering, served as mayor of Fayetteville in the 1970s and 1980s. Whitey operated a pool hall.

Skipping across the street to where the City of Fayetteville gazebo sits, a house sat here for many years. Roxie Blalock lived here and her home was noted due to the many Coke bottles she stuck upside down in the ground along the path to her door. This home was demolished in the late 1960s.

The land became a city park until the county bought the land and the Stonewall Village in 1988. Originally built as a business condo facility, it got caught in the savings and loan debacle and could not close out.

On the eastside corner, now occupied by By Invitation Only, sat the general store owned by Abe Rosenblum. It was later bought by Cecil Cohn, who later sold to James Adams, who then sold to Custard and Ruby Mize. They operated a store here. The next building north was a grocery store operated by "Pomp" Bearden. In the unit just north of this was the Farmers & Merchants Bank, which was chartered in 1905. Both J.W. Culpepper and J.W. Wise each had a law office in back of the bank. The bank built a new facility across from the Holliday-Fife house, now the Holliday-Dorsey-Fife museum, in the early 1960s, now occupied by Southern Crescent. The post office also sat on the eastern side beside the bank. The post office also built a new facility, beside the bank, and it is now occupied by Brannon Antiques.

Again, on the eastern side, the misses Jim and Agnes Kitchens had a store, and just north of them, there was a drug store. Among those operating a drug store here were Dr. R.R. Beadles, Dr. Robert Arnall and Dr. E.C. Seawright.

Dr. Seawright added a second store above him and it had a movie theater in it. At the present time it is the law office of Charles Ballard.

Dr. Seawright had a son-in-law, Jack Day, who was also a pharmacist. He died in the 1960s quite unexpectedly, and the new city park, on that land behind Roxie Blalock's house, was named for him.

Also operating this drug store in later years was Claude Thompson and then Robert Ward. It is empty at this time.

In 1952 Ed Travis bought a building from the Crews and opened a hardware store. In 1962 he moved several doors down, taking the empty bank and post office sites, and knocking out a wall. He operated this store until 1982.

Moving up to the present location of Rene Bidez Photography and the Design Glass company, at the turn of the 1900s, R.E.L. Fife maintained a mercantile store. Miss Beauty Griggs had a millenary shop in one part. K.W. McElwaney, Sr. later bought the units from Fife and operated a grocery store, and a furniture and hardware store. Later his son, K.W. McElwaney, Jr. operated a grocery store at the site. When buying groceries, he would write down the amount in a note pad, one for each customer. At the end of the month patrons came in and "settled up."

At the beginning of the twentieth century, a public well sat near the road, in front of what is now Bidez Photography.

Each morning the merchants on this east side would come out with a broom and meticulously brush their part out to the road, which was dirt until the early 1950s.

Due to showing movies any way you could, it was not unusual in the late 1930s to see a sheet strung out across this dirt road, used to - you guessed it- show movies.

There was an awning across all the east side businesses and benches in front of McElwaney's. At the end of the day men would gather here and just sit. They were referred to by the wives, patiently waiting at home, as the "Buzzards Roost."

Much has changed in the Fayetteville courthouse square in the past century. Museums, memorial markers and parks surrounding the area and the county are named for the people who helped build the city into what it is today, and with the influx of many newcomers to the area, many people are unaware of the city’s rich history.