102 E. MAIN ST.

09.24.19 (G. Kueber)

Hearn Grocery, 1983 (from Carrboro, N.C., an Architectural & Historical Inventory)

John Hearn first opened a local grocery store in 1919. In 1941 and 1944, he purchased the property at auction. In 1947, the wall dividing the two sections of the structure was demolished/removed to enlarge the store.

The Hearn family sold the property in May 1986.

(Below from Carrboro Commercial District NR Nomination, 1984)

Carrboro's oldest business and only surviving independent grocery occupies this one-story brick building. The large transoms of small frosted glass panes topped with a simple molded metal box cornice and recessed corbelled panels above are characteristic of modest brick commercial buildings dating from the 1920s. Lueco Lloyd constructed the building in 1924 as rental property on the former site of the Pendergraph Boarding House where the 1924 fire originated. The present building was designed with two storefronts so that it could be subdivided if desired. Lloyd's first and only tenant was John Hearn who had been operating his grocery, J.E. Hearn & Son, in a frame building (later replaced with the present brick building on the site) next door at the corner of South Greensboro Street. Prior to moving to Carrboro after World War I, Hearn.had operated a grocery in Chapel Hill. James Hearn recalled that in the early years of the family's Carrboro grocery many of the customers would arrive in their wagons at the hitching post to the rear of the store with meat and produce for barter. After John Hearn's death, his son Len continued to operate the business under the name of L.D. Hearn. In 1944, [NOTE: 1941 and 1944 he purchased the property] Hearn purchased the building, and over the years the new owner extended the rear of the building three times. Other alterations include the installation of the metal awning and metal framed plate glass windows. In the 1950s, Len Hearn's son, James, entered the business and the name was changed to L.D. Hearn and Son. After his father's death, James, who continues to operate the store today, changed the name to Hearn's Grocery.