Mercantile Building

Mercantile Building. . , This building was built in 1892 immediately following the fire of that year by W.T. Hoffman, a German merchant who operated a bakery and sold fancy groceries and heavy dry goods. At that time the building was just a single story building, much smaller than the present building. , In June of 1903, the property was purchased by the Edgefield Mercantile Company, a newly-formed, corporately-owned hardware, farm supply, furniture and funeral business. The company had just been founded, receiving a charter from the State of South Carolina and subscriptions for $25,000 in stock. The initial directors of the company were W.A. Strom, S.T. Williams, F.L. Timmerman, J.M. Cobb, J.H. Reel, A.E. Padgett, J.P. Ouzts, C.A. Wells and J.L. Caughman. The officers were A.E. Padgett (1860-1936), President; F.L. Timmerman, Vice President; J.L. Ouzts, Treasurer and General Manager. Extensive alterations and additions to the building were made by the end of 1904, making it a three story building and installing an elevator to transport goods to all three floors. The Edgefield Chronicle reported that the building "will be filled to the brim and running over with a stock of general merchandise, staple and fancy groceries, plantation supplies, hardware, furniture, buggies, wagons, baby carriages and coffins , from the cradle to the grave , everything that you see in a mammoth department store in one of our cities." The Edgefield Mercantile Company continued to operate for many years under the leadership of the Padgett family, John W. Kemp, Sr. (1881-1961), William Hamilton (1911-1970) and Thurmond Burnett (1937-). Today, more than 100 years after its founding, only the funeral division of this company is still in business. , In 1991, some years after the Mercantile Company closed its retail business, Crouch Hardware Company moved into the building.