The Old Sautee Store
While visiting one of our cabins in North Georgia, you may be interested in visiting The Old Sautee Store. They have a multitude of interesting items for purchase; such as a variety of candies, cheeses and other food items, as well as soaps, candles, lotions and books. They also have gift boxes with many items in them. Our favorite part is the nickelodeon in the front. There is also a sandwich shop next door that can provide a great lunch. We are going to provide a brief history of the store to pique your interests.
The Old Sautee Store was founded and built between the years 1872-73. It was completed by members employed through the Williams family, one of 60 families that originally settled this valley when it was first surveyed, and distributed early in the 19th century. A slave house some 50 yards from the front door was recently moved and restored by the Sautee Nacoochee Community Center and now resides 1/4 mile down Hwy 255 just beyond the present day post office.
The locals relied on the store almost entirely during this time for all their household items, cleaning supplies, tp, etc., their farm supplies, feed and seed, construction materials, windows, doors, nails, food stuffs, such as sugar, flour, eggs and butter. The owner and proprietor in 1937 was licensed by the state of Georgia to sell cigars and cigarettes, and by this time gasoline had become part of what locals needed to supply their new gas powered motor capabilities. When before they used the centripetal force of a ‘hit and miss motor’ to automate farm work processes.
The times began to change along the Unicoi Turnpike (now Hwy 17) but the Old Sautee Store remained pretty much the same, until the post office closed in the late 1950’s and for a while the store lay empty.
Located in the Nacoochee Valley Historic District at the intersection of the Nacoochee and Sautee Valleys of Northeast Georgia stands a historic and proud old general store…The Old Sautee Store. When it was built in 1872 it was a true general store. Local residents would come to the store to purchase food, seed, or farm supplies. It served as the local post office for Sautee-Nacoochee until 1913 and as the post office for Sautee until 1962. Through the Nacoochee Valley and directly in front of the store ran the old Unicoi Turnpike, a major thoroughfare from the navigatable end of the Tugaloo River to the Unicoi Mountains of East Tennessee.
A second major road connected the Nacoochee Valley with Rabun county to the Northeast. Appearing on maps as early as 1837, portions of this highway are now part of Georgia Highways 255, 197, and U.S. Highway 76. It used the Stovall Covered Bridge over Chickamauga Creek. At the time the store was completed it sat at what was one of the busiest intersection of roads in these parts.
After nearly 135 years the old store still retains the characteristics of the Old Days with its deep, rich golden brown hues of aged wood. In the front one can still see the past in the memorable displays of days gone by, while finding many “new” general store items such a old-time candy, specialty foods, house-wares, gifts, apparel and jewelry in the back additions to this proud old one of a kind establishment.
Hours
Open 7 Days A Week,
10 AM to 5 PM Monday – Thursday,
10 AM – 5:30 PM Friday and Saturday
11:30 AM – 5 PM on Sundays
Address
2315 GA-17,
Sautee Nacoochee, GA 30571
Phone
(706) 878-2281
We hope that you will visit The Old Sautee Store during your next Georgia vacation.