The author, Steve Bailey, is outreach coordinator at the Anson County Historical Society. This article includes research the author conducted in 2013 when he was commissioned by the county to find the age of the old Belk Department Store building (now used for the county offices of probation, child support and veterans affairs). 

The Belk Department Store opened for business in Wadesboro on Friday, March 27, 1925, and according to the Messenger-Intelligencer, moved into the building on North Greene Street that was formerly occupied by the Allen Hardware Co.

On Oct. 6, 1921, the Messenger-Intelligencer reported that the Blalock-Allen Hardware Co. on Greene Street had ceased operations and the joint owners started two new companies; H.E. Allen managed the newly established Allen Hardware Co. and U.B. Blalock managed the newly established Blalock Motor Sales Co. The newspaper reported that Blalock came to Wadesboro from Norwood in 1905 to assume charge of the old Planters Hardware Co., in which he purchased stock. A little later the name was changed to Blalock Hardware Co. and much later the name was changed to Blalock-Allen Hardware Co. (Allen has been connected with the business for 12 years when it ceased.)

The Messenger-Intelligencer reported on June 18, 1903, that the Planters Hardware Co. had been established in Wadesboro and “would commence business as soon as a storeroom could be obtained and goods and wares purchased.” A side note at the end of the article stated the following: “Since the above article was posted the new hardware company has purchased the hardware business on Greene Street that was managed by Elijah A. Covington and his nephew Benjamin G. Covington and known as the Wadesboro Hardware Company and years ago was known as Covington’s Hardware Company on Greene Street. This deal was consummated yesterday afternoon and Mr. Benjamin G. Covington will be with the new Planters Hardware Co.” 

The obituary of Dr. Elijah A. Covington from the Messenger-Intelligencer on Sept. 15, 1915, says he and his wife helped to raise his nephew, Benjamin G. Covington, and together these two men established the Wadesboro Hardware Co.

I have not found incorporation records for Wadesboro Hardware Co. or Covington’s Hardware Co. but I have searched backward through old newspapers on microfilm and found that the Covingtons advertised their business as late as the early 1900s and back to October 1888, which is the first issue of the Messenger-Intelligencer that exists.

An 1887 issue of Branson’s North Carolina Gazette lists all the businesses in Anson County and Elijah A. Covington is listed as a merchant on Greene Street in Wadesboro. An 1884 issue of Branson’s North Carolina Gazette lists Elijah A. Covington as a farmer living in Wadesboro, so Covington’s Hardware or Wadesboro Hardware Co. was possibly established somewhere between 1884 and 1887.

Before Elijah A. Covington owned that parcel of land on North Greene Street, I discovered that Joseph and John Crowder owned the property. According to the Anson County Deed Book dated Feb. 18, 1882, Joseph and John Crowder sold to Elijah A. Covington a parcel of land for $600 in Wadesboro “near the steps of the town door at the intersections of Greene and Morgan streets.”

According to Branson’s North Carolina Gazette for the years 1877 and 1878, Crowder & Co. were merchants on Greene Street. I can only presume there was a building there at the time but I haven’t found proof that the old Belk building was originally built by the Crowder family, so perhaps it was built by Elijah A. Covington in the mid-1880s.

Some folks claim our beloved Wadesboro Belk building was built before the Civil War. I haven’t found any proof of this but in September 2012 there was a map of uptown Wadesboro at the Anson County Historical Society office. It had a handwritten date of 1870, but I proved that date wrong back then when Ralph Coble invited me over to his place of business, Lord George Antiques on Camden Road, where there was a copy of the same map. I searched online and discovered the actual date is 1885. You will need a magnifying glass but you can locate the Belk building on this map, then known as Elijah A. Covington’s Hardware Co.

I remembered an article found online several years ago in regard to the Anson County Courthouse fire of April 2, 1868, when 32 buildings were destroyed, including the courthouse. Anson County was already trying to recover from the Civil War and from what I have learned over the years, Anson County and Chesterfield County struggled through the late 1860s and 1870s trying to recover from the effects of the Civil War. No one had much money and the Yankee soldiers had destroyed the land, making it difficult to grow any crops for several years. In my opinion, property owners in uptown Wadesboro couldn’t afford to build a brick store building in the 1860s but possibly could build such a building by the mid to late 1870s.