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One of the central landmarks of Schoolfield’s commercial life was what became known as “The Front” and originally housed the company-owned store, Park Place Mercantile Company. The Front stands on the south side of West Main Street at the corner of Baltimore Avenue, which led into a southern residential area. The two-story brick building was one of the first to be constructed in the village, along with the mills and executive office building across the street between 1903 and 1906. Park Place Mercantile Company offered wood, coal, food and other general necessities so that mill villagers would not need to venture far beyond the confines of the village in order to take care of daily needs and wants. Dan River Mills owned most of the shares of Park Place Mercantile until 1909, when the propriety of profiting from the same millhands they paid was put into question. Nevertheless, shares were not sold off to some distant private party, but to others with stock in Dan River Mills, John Swanson and an executive staffer with Dan River Mills, D. A. Overbey. The mills also continued to play landlord to the store, overseeing improvements and making suggestions for various accoutrement, such as simple awnings on the front windows.

The Park Place Mercantile building itself was a simple form built in the Main Street Commercial style, demonstrating its function as a necessary economic convenience for both the millworkers and the owners who stood to profit from their daily needs. The building has a common-bond brick exterior with a Flemish-variant and consisted of six different stores of various massing on the first floor. The second floor is interconnected with two main stepped entrances from West Main Street. Each first-floor store has its own recessed entrance flanked by storefront glass to show off their wares. Wood transom windows once ribboned the front elevation, and the second-floor windows offered a touch of distinction to the building with limestone sills that framed the double-hung, wood-sash windows with twelve over twelve paned lights. A simple flat roof caps the building with brick chimneys on the rear elevation. By 1910, the building boasted a barbershop, drugstore, furniture store and billiard room, with the second floor dedicated to fraternal societies and other social clubs. Park Place Mercantile itself stayed in business in the Front until 1972 and the building also became infamous for the murder of James L. Allen, who was robbed and murdered at his jewelry shop, Allen’s, that was next to Schoolfield Lunch, a diner frequented by mill workers.

Many businesses came and went in the Front, but perhaps none was so beloved as Schoolfield Lunch. Schoolfield Lunch first opened in the building in 1914 and was owned and operated by Greek immigrants: Kalomira Robanos and Harry Demitrios Kirios. The restaurant, which served famous chili hotdogs, stayed in the family for ninety-six years, finally closing under Bill and Jimmy Kirios’ ownership in 2010.

Today, Foxglove, owned by John and Anne Mason, occupies the western portion of the Front, and Schoolfield Lunch has been replaced by Schoolfield Restaurant, owned by Scott Sliney and John Shutts (aka: Johnny “Bodacious”). Though both Foxglove and Schoolfield Restaurant offer more “upscale” clothing and dining, they still retain popularity of their commercial precedents.

The Park Place Mercantile Company was the original store in the Front building and stayed open from 1903 until 1972. “Park Place Mercantile Company, Once a Company Store, Closes Its Doors.” The Danville Register. April 30, 1972, p 3B. Slide 2 shows a 1930s newspaper showing the Front and its stores as featured in a Danville Register profile. Courtesy of the Ruby B. Archie Danville Public Library.

The Front also witnessed some tragedies among its businesses owners, like this terrible murder of James “Jimmie” Allen, who owned a long-standing jewelry store in Schoolfield and was robbed by his assailant in 1982. “On Anniversary, friends recall Allen slaying,” The Danville Register. January 9th, 1983, p 1B.

1009 W. Main Street in 2020. Photo on file with the City of Danville.

A 1990ca Bob Jones Painting of Schoolfield Lunch with its horseshoe counters and owner Bill Kirios seen standing behind the front counter. Courtesy of the Schoolfield Preservation Foundation. The following slides offer a bit more background to this long-lived and much beloved restaurant.

The left-hand corner of this 1910 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map shows the original building at 1009 W. Main Street. Businesses there included a company store, a billiards store and a pharmacy, among others. Courtesy of the Salem Public Library.

The Front was also home to the Dan River Cloth Store, where the public and workers alike could purchase fabric for outlet prices. 1940s photo of a sale inside the Cloth Store in the Front, Courtesy of UNC-Chapel Hill Wilson Library’s Southern Historical Collection Dan River Inc. Papers.

Schoolfield Lunch was a place for Dan River workers to gather and discuss the day’s local news, such as when corporate raider Carl Icahn threatened to buy up all Dan River stock. (Spoiler Alert: Carl Icahn never got away with it!) “DRI Wokers fear Icahn Victory.” The Danville Register. November 11, 1982, p 1A.

See also:

2016 StoryCorps Interview Nick Sapounakes with Bill Kirios, owner of Schoolfield Lunch: https://soundcloud.com/danriverhistory/2016-danville-storycorps-nick-sapounakes-and-bill-kirios?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Smith, Robert S. Mill on the Dan: A History of Dan River Mills, 1882-1950. Duke University Press, 1960, pp. 110-111.

H. R. Fitzgerald to John P. Swanson, October 3, 1919, Box 27, Dan River Mills, Inc., Records #5793, Southern Historical Collection.

H. R. Fitzgerald to John P. Swanson, December 22, 1920, Box 27, Dan River Mills, Inc., Records #5793, Southern Historical Collection.