Willis Store, Middle Road, Edwards, Mississippi

In the last article, we looked at an abandoned store at the junction of Newman and Canada Cross Roads. Proceed east a few miles on Canada Cross Road and you get to the intersection with Middle Road.  This is the site of the Willis Store.

Country stores in Edwards, Mississippi

Willis Store, corner of Canada Cross and Middle Roads, Edwards, Mississippi.

The building is in reasonably good condition and has modern lighting. But the price in the gasoline pump shows an older era.

This gasoline pump was last used when gasoline was $1.249/gallon, even though the "1" in the leftmost window is no longer visible.  If it was 24 cents/gallon, that would date this pump to the mid-1960s, a couple decades too old.  My friend remembered the business as active in the early 1980s.  Also, he told me that there was another old store in the woods south of the intersection, but the woods were thick, and I saw no remnants.

Jax Beer was brewed by the Jackson Brewery of New Orleans. Prior to 1956, it was brewed by the Jax Brewing Company of Jacksonville, Florida.

Historic home on Bill Strong Road, Edwards.

If you continue east, the road becomes Bill Strong Road.  About a mile east is a handsome historic house with six pillars.  The house may be unoccupied, but a cat crossed the porch, and just to the right, and couple of curious cows watched me.

The first three photographs were taken with a Fuji X-E1 digital camera and the 27 mm f/2.8 lens.  The old house was with a Panasonic G3 camera and 20 mm f/1.7 lens.  The black and white frames were reprocessed with PhotoNinja software.

Country store, Canada Cross Road, Edwards, Mississippi

Country stores in Edwards, Mississippi.  Map drawn with ESRI ArcMap software.

Regular readers may remember when I wrote about the now-closed Newman Plantation store, at the corner of Newman and Canada Cross Roads, in Edwards, Mississippi.

Newman Plantation store, Canada Cross Road, Edwards. Photograph processed with PhotoNinja software.

Here is another view of the Newman store, with its deep overhang to protect motorists in the old days when they were having their cars fueled or serviced (remember when attendants in pressed uniforms filled the gasoline, washed windows, and checked oil?). A friend from Utica remembered that the store was open in the early 1970s.

Abandoned store or farm shop, Canada cross Road, Edwards, Mississippi

Just to the west on Canada Cross Road is another abandoned store or farm supply warehouse. My friend remembers his grandmother telling him that this was the original Newman store, while the white building on the corner was the new store (new meaning from the 1930s). The mailbox shows 1940, but that applies to the house across the street.

In the woods behind are some old farm sheds.  They were once next to to cleared fields, but the trees have been growing here for decades. Over time, many farms in Mississippi have been abandoned, and the land is returning to timber.

Some farm implements are lying in the leaves - isn't the equipment worth repairing or selling for scrap?

My favorite subject matter: old junk in sheds or buildings. Compared to film, digital cameras are so easy to use in low-light conditions, and there is minimal color shift with long exposures. But always use a tripod.

This area once had many small country stores.  The Betigheimer store is now gone.  The Yates store is still standing, but unused. A former store in Farnham, Virginia, is now privately owned.  Click the names for the links to the articles.

Photographs taken with a Fujifilm X-E1 digital camera with the 27mm lens.  I rented it for a weekend and was very impressed with the resolution and color quality. All photographs tripod-mounted.

Newman Plantation Store, Edwards, Mississippi

Here is another old-fashioned country store near Utica and Edwards, Mississippi: the former Newman Plantation store.  It is at the corner of Newman and Canada Cross Roads.

Map of Edwards and vicinity, with other historic stores shown (from ESRI ArcMap software)

I have little any information about the store's history.  Unlike the nearby Yates store, no one came by to chat on this quiet Sunday afternoon.  The store had the long overhang typical of early gasoline stations.  According to Tidbits and Treasures, written by Mary Landin, "Newman  Plantation covered a large area around Newman, which is the crossroads of two historic county roads that did not used to have names. No Newmans ever  lived on what is now Newman Road, because their homes face what is now  called Canada Cross Roads. When the county named them, they named the one that the Newmans thought should have been named Newman Road, Canada Cross  Roads, which is a misnomer in itself, and named the road that went to Edwards  from Newman, Newman Road."  Ms. Landin is a local historian and advocate of small-town living.

The store is locked and protected with bars, but I was able to take one photograph through the dusty glass.

Interior of abandoned Newman country store

Look at the old cash register on the shelf in the lower left. And is that a hot water radiator on the far wall?

I took these photographs taken with a Panasonic G3 camera with 9-18mm Panasonic lens or a 1949-vintage Leitz 5 cm ƒ/2 Summitar lens. The Summitar lens has been in the family since my dad bought it new.