No doubt, on the morning of April 9, 1869 J. A Broughton was inspecting the charred rubble of his Dry Goods and Grocery store at the southeast corner of Washington and Main, a victim of the Great Fire that consumed nearly all downtown Madison. The Greenville Enterprise (SC) reported nine months later “one could hardly tell there had been a fire” and “Four large brick buildings were going up on the public square.” The two-story building that Broughton built was
probably one of them. Little mention of Broughton’s business shows up in the local papers through the 1870s though we do find mention in lists of Madison’s businesses in Monroe’s Southern Witness, in The Atlanta Constitution, and a couple of trade journals. J.A. Broughton died in 1880 bringing a new business to the building which continued to be referred to as the Broughton Building or Broughton’s Corner.
The Hammonds moved their Augusta Cash Store – sometimes called the Augusta Cheap Store– from the Foster Block on the north side of the square to the Broughton Building on the south side of the square in September of 1883. Although the business was run by a husband-and-wife team, Mary Ann Hammond was more closely associated with it. Her stature in Madison’s commercial sphere is evidenced by the newspaper referring to her as Mrs. M. A. Hammond using her initials rather than her husband’s as was typical. In describing the move, The Madisonian noted that she would “carry on an extensive dress making department up stairs [sic] and conduct her usual business on the first floor – adding greatly to her dress goods department." The paper congratulated “this elegant lady on her success.” The Hammonds sold dress goods, millinery, embroideries, novelties, etc. here for a decade.
In early 1894 the building transitioned to a drug store. Clark & Hunter’s Drug Store moved from the Richter Building a few doors down on Main Street to the corner. E.B. Clark and J.H. Hunter owned this business as well as a furniture store. At the drug store, Neil Vason was the clerk and a Mr. Mountcastle was the prescriptionist. Clark left the partnership later that year to return to farming in Oglethorpe County. Hunter continued the business solely under his name until 1897 when he teamed up with Dr. M. F. Brooks. Like most drug stores at the time, they had a soda fountain where, in 1900, they introduced a new drink: Dr. Pepper’s Phospho Ferrates. You could also drop your laundry off to have it cleaned by the Guthman Steam Laundry in Atlanta. The firm employed several
prescriptionists over the years including: W.B. Ogletree, Ewell Spearman, Mr. Quillian, and Butler Atkinson. Hunter & Brooks Drug Co. moved to the Atkinson Corner in 1902.
The Anderson Dry Goods Co. opened in March 1904. Their ads noted “Known by its Blue Front,” and “The only Blue Front in Madison,” and “The Blue Corner.” Guess what color they painted the building? It appears that by the Anderson's tenancy the arched window openings had been retrofitted with larger square windows. Roscoe Anderson plied his trade here for about four years. A 1906 advertisement announced, “a change in business causes us to offer our entire stock at exactly invoice cost.” It is unclear when the business closed, but the Madisonian reported in April 1908 that W.E. Shepard had bought Anderson’s stock of goods and would conduct a fancy dry goods business at the same stand. It was during Shepard’s occupancy that the storefront had a radical change. The newspaper reported improvements to the store in September 1914. The front appears to have been recessed and the corner opened.
The next tenant, following W. E. Shepherd’s relocation to a Main Street building in 1923, would undertake an even more radical change to the building. Enter the Age of the Automobile. This we will save for a later installment of Madison Moments.
