Back

Home

About Us

What We Do

For Landowners

LTLT Properties

How You Can Help

Publications

Calendar of Events

News

Links

LTLT Blog

Rickman Store Campaign gets Boost from Eckerd Family Foundation

The campaign to conserve the T.M. Rickman General Store in northern Macon County just received a huge boost from the Eckerd Family Foundation which awarded a $50,000 grant to the Land Trust for the Little Tennessee (LTLT) for the project.  The Rickman Store was built in 1895 and served for nearly one hundred years as a general store and the central gathering place for the Cowee community.  The store lies in the heart of Cowee-West’s Mill; the largest National Register Historic District in western North Carolina.  The District encompasses over 1400 years of manmade structures and a combined history of Native American, African American, Revolutionary War, and Appalachian cultures.  LTLT purchased the Rickman Store building last August and has launched a campaign to raise $300,000 to pay for the building and its upkeep.

          The Eckerd Foundation grant supports LTLT’s efforts to conserve the Rickman Store as an historic, educational resource for the community.  Earlier this year Josh Lynch’s third grade class from neighboring Cowee Elementary School, met in the Store to learn about the history of the store, the school, and their community.  According to Lynch the store itself is a learning activity.  The “Friends of Rickman Store”, a local group working with LTLT, plan to use the Store as a history learning center to serve a minimum of 150 students from local schools over each of the next several years.  “The Eckerd Family Foundation believes in the inherent value of every child,” stated Nancy Eckerd Hart in support of this grant, “what better way to understand one’s self-worth than by studying the incredibly rich history found right here in the Cowee Community.”

            The “Friends of Rickman Store” also hope to organize traditional art and craft classes led by local artisans at the store as part of an after-school program as well as educational tours of the Historic District that includes the Cowee Mound, the Pleasant Hill AME Church, and the Cowee Pottery along with the T.M. Rickman General Store.  In addition the group plans to host family evenings at the store throughout the year with popular activities of past generations such as checkers, apple pressing and the like.  Through these educational opportunities, the Rickman Store will serve as a local resource to strengthen the community by gaining a greater sense of place and history.

            “The Land Trust is extremely grateful to the Eckerd Family Foundation for their extremely generous support of the Rickman Store project” said Paul Carlson – LTLT’s Executive Director.  “With this leadership grant from the Foundation, along with funds raised from local families and friends over the holiday season, we are now over a quarter of the way to our $300,000 goal for purchasing the General Store.”