Notes

Renovated part of Belk Store building.    We believe the four walls* of these two buildings were erected in 1907.  The following appeared in The Monroe Journal, Nov. 5, 1907, page 5, Column 2:  "Belk Brothers to Celebrate With A Big Sale" Belk Bros. have completed their handsome new store rooms and are now preparing to get into them.  They expect to open up in full blast on Thursday and have prepared to celebrate the occasion by one of the largest special sales ever conducted in this section.  Their big advertisement in this issue...For nineteen years this firm has been in business in Monroe.  They began by treating the public well and the public has in return treated them well.  This policy of mutual benefit has been kept up through the years and has resulted in building up large businesses in six different towns.  And in all these different places the spirit of Belk Bros. is the same--liberal, enterprising and successful.  (paragraph break) The new stores that this popular firm will open to the public next Thursday are real beauties.  The building is a handsome one, two stories high, built of white pressed brick, beautiful plate glass front, with two store rooms 27x 90 feet each on the ground floor, steel ceiling and well fitted for the purpose for which it is to be used.  All the shelving, counters, show cases, etc., were built expressly for the kind of goods they are to contain...The new building is a credit to the town, and its owners and builders are to be congratulated.  Mr. W. F. Morgan has had charge of the erection of the building.  The second story will be used as a wholesale department.  The old store rooms near the new store will be used for clothing, and in the near future a fine three-story department store will be built on the corner where the old building now stands. [that building was not built until 1941]   -Transcribed by Patricia Poland, 2/16/2012