Valentine General Store

by Joseph C Hinson

Title

Valentine General Store

Artist

Joseph C Hinson

Medium

Photograph - Photography

Description

Cope, South Carolina was founded on land purchased from Orangeburg County farmer Jacob Martin Cope. It started with a Manchester and Augusta railroad depot, but within a few years, the town boasted residences, two churches, several mercantile stores, a drugstore, a grist mill, a cotton gin and a planing mill.

Valentine General Store was certainly part of that. It was established in 1911 by J.I. Valentine who ran a store at this location until 1937 when it was passed to his son, Robert. Robert Valentine and his sister, Henry Ella, built a new a new establishment here in 1940 ahead of World War II. Patrons were able to buy all of their essentials during that time period from sewing machines and sewing material to shoes, baskets, nuts and bolts to food.

Henry Ella Valentine died in 1980 and Robert in 1987 leaving the store to his granddaughter, Jo Ellen Riley. Riley, the great-granddaughter of Jacob Martin Cope, ran the store until 2004 at which time it became an unofficial museum of the town and Valentine General Store itself. It is located at 132 Cotton Ave, Cope, SC 29038.

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April 15th, 2022

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