Mooresville, NC hardware store has served community since 1899

A lot of things have changed in downtown Mooresville since D.E. Turner & Co. Hardware opened in 1899, but the store's connection to the town's past is a big reason why it's so popular with locals.

If you've ever been to D.E. Turner & Co., you've met Jack Moore. He's been working at the store for over 70 years.

"I went to work here 75 years ago," Moore said. "I was 15 years old in high school and I'm 90 now. The only job I've ever had."

D.E. Turner Hardware is the oldest operating business in Mooresville and it's seen the town go from dirt roads to paved streets and saw a once narrow river turn into Lake Norman, the largest man-made body of freshwater in North Carolina.

Still operating in its original location at 115 Main St., D.E. Turner harkens back to days gone by, where stores didn't specialize inventory. To this day, they still keep a little bit of everything, including some things other stores "don't even know about," Moore joked.

"I only remember stores like this," one customer said. "Maybe a general store, but I don't think they exist much anymore."

"Daddy always says, 'if we don't have it, you don't need it anyway,'" Moore's daughter, Jackie, said. "So many people walk in our front door and go, 'oh wow.'"

The store itself was built before it opened in 1899. That's before power tools and modern construction techniques were developed.

"One of those places that you're either old enough to have remembered one or you're young enough to have never seen one," Moore's son, Danny, said. "In either case, it's interesting."

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