Today Waynesville has one of the most beautiful and flourishing downtowns in the Smoky Mountain region, but that hasn’t always been the case. Like many other small towns, it was slowly dying back in the 1970s. The long road to its present vitality took several turns, but the decision by one particular major retailer to open a store on Main Street is generally regarded as the catalyst for downtown Waynesville’s transformation.
Back in the 1980s, Waynesville resident Don Eudy’s two kids were going to Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C., and Eudy and his wife would regularly visit them.
In Boone, Eudy often stopped in at the Mast General Store, an anchor point in that vibrant downtown that specialized in outdoor clothing and gear, unique kitchenware and toys, and even hand-made jewelry. Inside the store, he noticed something: Mast General Store’s layout was almost exactly that of an empty Waynesville store.
This realization came at a time of change for downtown Waynesville. Its major department store was leaving, and leaders were talking about what they could do to breath a bit of life into a downtown on the downhill.
“I knew we needed help,” said Eudy, who at the time was county executive at a local bank.
Eudy eventually got the attention of Mast owner John Cooper, whose son had attended Western Carolina University, which is in Cullowhee and about 20 minutes from Waynesville.
“I simply got him interested in coming and taking a look at it,” Eudy said.
Cooper and his wife came to Waynesville and walked the downtown streets, getting a feel for the place and talking to business owners. One of the key points of Cooper’s visits was to let local business owners know that Mast was not here to cut into their businesses.
“He wanted the store to blend in to the community, and to assure them that what he was going to offer was not like anything they were already doing,” Eudy said. “He wanted them to know Mast was an asset rather than a liability. And it is. There is nothing else like it here.”
Indeed.
The Mast General Store in Valle Crucis was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973 for its importance as one of the finest remaining examples of an old country general store. But in 1977, the doors closed. They reopened in 1980 after Cooper and his wife, Faye, purchased it. To this day, the company is popular with tourists but says its bread and butter clientele are locals.
What Cooper found in Waynesville was a palpable excitement and a real drive to revitalize downtown.
“There was a real strong sense of community, and it was a real vibrant and walkable downtown,” Cooper said.
But Mast at the time was not looking to expand.
“That was a watershed type of decision, for us to go into downtowns,” said Cooper. “We had made that decision in Boone but it wasn’t until Waynesville that we were really set in our ways to look for growth.”
The Waynesville store opened 1991, and its success led to new stores in Hendersonville (1995), Asheville (1999), Greenville, S.C., (2003), and Knoxville (2006), making the retailer a regional chain in the towns that snake along the Smoky Mountains.
The opening of Mast, said Eudy, really got things going in downtown Waynesville. Part of that was having an anchor store that brought in visitors, while part was creating a sense of cooperation and longevity.
The whole effort at the time was important to Eudy both because of his fondness for the community and his sense as a banker.
“Being a banker, we were naturally concerned with the health of our customers,” Eudy said. “And that spreads all over the community. None of us wants to live in a town that is not attractive is dying.”
Cooper said while downtown held a lot of promise, the leaders on the street were what convinced him that a move to Waynesville could be good. And, the successes he saw taking place under the banner of Waynesville’s Main Street program encouraged Cooper to get Boone on the Main Street program, too.
“We thought it was a big jump for us,” Cooper said “But what we had in downtown Waynesville was people telling us that they needed our business. That adds credibility. They were not just trying to fill a vacant space. They were recruiting to make downtown better, not just for their profit but for the profit of the community. That made an impression.”
“We’ve been thrilled to be part Waynesville,” Cooper said. “It has kind of served as a model for us, and it’s been important to be engaged and involved in the cause of downtown. Waynesville still, I think, is one of the best examples I know of a town that has pulled itself up from the bootstraps and continued to just flourish.”
Eudy said that, from those initial efforts to revitalize downtown Waynesville, most of his dreams have been realized. Downtown is beautiful, there is a definite “look” to the street, and the season of heightened activity keeps stretching the season until it is now a year-round destination.
“Those people are coming here, most of them, just because they find downtown attractive,” he said. “I think we need to understand what we are: beautiful weather, cool nights, and tourism.”