history
1760 - 1900
WILLS FOREST
THE STORE is located on a small urban lot in the Historic Glenwood-Brooklyn Neighborhood that was originally part of the substantial landholdings of Joel Lane, considered Raleigh’s founding father. He dubbed the area ‘Will’s Forest’ after he allowed a free black man named ‘Will’ to live there in the late 1700s. In the 1840s, Lane’s descendants built a Greek Revival mansion called ‘The Devereux House at Will’s Forest’ sited just east of what is now Glenwood Avenue. The house was demolished ca. 1900 after the heirs original landholdings were subdivided and sold.
1905 - 1910
RALEIGH’S FIRST STREETCAR SUBURB
The incorporation of the Glenwood Land Company in May 1905 marks the birth of the Glenwood and Brooklyn neighborhood. It was the first of several suburban developments that came at a time when Raleigh’s city limits were enlarged and its streetcar lines were extended—the first expansion in a half century. By 1907, hundreds of lots had been auctioned off to a collection of blue collar and lower middle class families with a smattering of professionals that built predominantly 1 1/2- and 2-story frame dwellings of Bungalow / American Craftsman style. “The Glenwood Grocery” would soon be built on a corner lot anchoring the west end of Devereux Street (named in memory of Will’s Forest and its former landowners).
1915 - 1940
THE GLENWOOD GROCERY
Originally constructed in 1915, “The Glenwood Grocery” served as Brooklyn Hill’s general store. The modest, two-story wood-frame structure was built in a balloon-frame style, similar to a barn with an open-span post and beam interior on the first floor. The brick pier foundation was laid over dirt and the interior was heated with coal. The second floor was used for storage and meeting space namely, “The Glenwood Council—Junior Order United American Mechanics”.
John F. and Minnie Peatross owned and operated the grocery and lived nearby at 817 Brooklyn St. (present-day St. Mary’s Family Dentistry). In the late 1930’s, John Peatross left the business when he became superintendent of Raleigh’s Downtown City Market and Minnie Peatross ran the grocery until 1940 after which it briefly became ‘Lowe’s Grocery’.
In 1944, the Peatross’s sold the building for $1,000 to Alexander and Myrtle Nordan who resided in the neighborhood. The Nordans took over the grocery business and renamed the place “The Nordan Grocery & Market” which remained a neighborhood landmark for the next 30 years.
1944 - 1974
THE NORDEN GROCERY
As their young family began to grow, the Nordans used Alexander’s GI Bill to convert the back-end of the building into living quarters for them and their three children. According to his daughter, Linda Champion, Nordan kept the front section of the building as the neighborhood store and the space above for storage. The store featured a meat section, well-stocked penny candy counter, and bicycle-riding delivery boys. Voting officials set up ballot boxes at the checkout counter and teen-agers from Broughton High School sipped sodas on the sidewalk after school.
The couple continued to run the market for decades—30 years to be exact—selling "everything and anything except whiskey,” Alexander Nordan told The Raleigh Times the year after the grocery closed for good in 1974. In the photo from that time, Mr. Nordan is seen sitting on the porch that he added to the back of the building. By that time, the first story was a patchwork of apertures and the original corner entrance had long been closed up.
After Alexander’s death in 1976, his wife Myrtle continued to live onsite until her death in 1996. The couple's heirs then leased out the family apartment and used the remainder of the building was shuttered for storage. In 1997, the building was sold ‘as-is’ to John Reese, an architect, and his partner, Dan Lilley, Jr., an audiophile and inventor.
1997 - 1998
ADAPTIVE RE-USE
At the time John and Dan bought the property in 1997, there was no historic neighborhood overlay. They could have easily torn the old building down and started over. However, there were special zoning guidelines that required deeper setbacks at the corner and restricted new building heights to a story and a half. So, they decided to re-use what they could and re-adapt the rest—meaning get rid of everything except, improbably, the second floor and roof. The original proportions and Craftsman details of the second floor were in tact, but the ground floor had suffered many patch-worked alterations. The foundation, originally constructed without footings, required that the entire building be lifted up like beach cottage to dig a new crawl-space—buoyed-up on thick stilts white a a bulldozer drove through the interior. The original corner entrance was recreated and a covered porch—added by Mr. Nordon to the back of the property—was removed.
2000 - Present
LILLEY-REESE RESIDENCE
The interior was designed as a modern, loft-like space that conceptually recalls its fresh market days. Steel columns support an exposed beam creating a loft-like living space that is open and light-filled. A floating wood floor defines the central zone as a pallet-like platform and an exposed-face concrete masonry wall wraps the stainless-steel kitchen unit (a reference to the old store’s huge penny candy counter.) A modern cylindrical fireplace mimics the classic pot-bellied stove and open unadorned cabinets offer kitchenware, objects and books and artifacts as merchandise with ‘form follows function’ practicality. The open plan interior is a “chic mixture of the industrial and the rustic—“Metropolitan Home meets John Deere,” as one local journalist characterized it. Subtle shifts in levels throughout the first floor define different living areas, rather than walls.
For 17 years John Reese and Dan Lilley lived in, entertained in and enjoyed THE STORE, a name Dan dubbed. It fulfilled their hopes and dreams, reflected their values, and functioned as a haven of comfort and community. Dan passed away unexpectedly in 2016 and in 2017, John decided to offer THE STORE as a private guesthouse. Dan had a passion for music and used to invite musicians to host free live-music events. Today THE STORE is proud to continue that tradition (now in association with SoFarSounds) by hosting local live-music concerts every Fall and Spring.
AWARDS & PUBLICATIONS
1998
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Third annual Capital Area Preservation Landmarks Tour.
Sir Walter Raleigh Award for Community Appearance—given for contributions to the character, environment and appearance of the City of Raleigh.
“Survivors” by Nancy Oats from News & Observer’s Home section, April 28,
2000
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“Living in Space” by Carol Wills from Independent Weekly’s Home & Garden Special Issue, May
2004
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“Great Living in Store” by Vicki Hyman from News & Observer’s Home section, June 26,
HGTV’s “Building Character”. The subject of the series was commercial structures that were transformed into one-of-a-kind private homes.
2010
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Recognized by the AIA Triangle Design Awards Program for excellence in residential design throughout the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill region.
Additional accolades that same year came from Dwell Magazine and The News & Observer’s” Home of the Month.”