Heath & Reid General Store
(ca. 1888)
As Matthews’ oldest commercial structure, businesses have served local residents from the Heath & Reid General Store building for more than 100 years.
196 N Trade St, Matthews, NC 28105
On February 20, 1888, Everard Jefferson Heath (1851-1912) and Edward Solomon Reid (1864-1934) opened the Heath and Reid General Store on this site in what is now the oldest commercial structure in Matthews. The store was situated next to the tracks of the Carolina Central Railroad, attesting to the transformative economic impact of the Charlotte-to-Wilmington rail line that opened in 1874. The opening of a railroad depot in what was then a small farming community called Stumptown, later incorporated as the Town of Matthews in 1879 by Edward’s father Jeremiah Solomon Reid (1831-1906), proved transformative for the local residents.
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But the Heath and Reid General Store was more than just a store. In addition to serving the community as wholesale and retail merchants, Heath and Reid also provided banking and cotton brokerage services. Reid later moved to Charlotte to become a partner in a highly successful cotton and yarn brokerage firm, leaving Heath to take on his eldest son as his new business partner. The business became known as E.J. Heath & Son.
Everard Heath was known to be a skillful and adroit businessman. In 1912, the Charlotte Observer called him "one of the most prominent men in the county" due to his ability to elevate his mercantile enterprises "to commanding proportions." The Charlotte News claimed he "had the Midas touch.” E.J. Heath & Son sold groceries, cloth and sewing materials, farm supplies, and a wide range of other products. Heath also derived a substantial income from loaning supplies to sharecroppers in the spring and exacting payment in the form of crops in the fall. Following Heath’s death, his widow Annie M. Heath sold the building in 1919 to J.B. and W.L. Hemby, who continued to operate a store there. In 1926, John McCamey Caldwell, a prominent farmer in the nearby Providence Community, purchased the building and rented it to John Paxton, who operated a grocery store there for many years. Subsequent uses of the building have included a furniture store and offices for a local law firm.