The two windows in the front of the old H.J. Smith and Sons General Merchandise Store are indeed windows to the past. They have been there for more than 145 years, looking out onto Columbia Street.
They now adorn the front of the museum section of the store, which in the beginning was the main part of the establishment. Click on the images to make them larger.
The windows looked out upon the busiest street in Covington, overseeing neighbors greeting neighbors, oxen carts moving up and down to Columbia Landing, people conducting business, kids playing in the muddy street, wagons pulling logs, lumber, cotton.
Imagine standing inside this store, shopping. The year is 1887. You look out this exact same window to Columbia Street, and it is filled with horses and wagons and oxen. It's very dusty outside, because the street is just dirt. A boat whistle has sounded in the distance, and people are heading down the street to the schooner landing to pick up the weekly mail and welcome visitors from across the lake. There are no light poles, no traffic lights, no telephone wires.Today, the surroundings are different: street lights, traffic signal, cell phones. But the windows are the same.
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H. J. Smith's Sons General Merchandise Store
