Andrea Medeiros
amedeiros@abc6.com
There was an overwhelming amount of emotion, Sunday, as a local store in the family for seven generations was forced to close down. "Gray's" in Adamsville is the oldest general store in the country, but it just couldn't hang on any longer.
The 224 year old quaint, family-run store is now shut down for good. It's been a huge part of the family's lives. Not only that, but "Gray's" has become a landmark in Adamsville, which is part of Little Compton. So much so, hundreds of folks flocked to the store for its last day.
The shutters were closed, the flag out front came down, and after centuries of serving the people of Adamsville the door to "Gray's" general store was closed, Sunday, for good.
It was doubly emotional for the family who's run it for seven generations. Not only did they say goodbye to the local landmark, but also the man who ran it since the 80's.
"Grayton was an incredible person and a wonderful father and a great man, and it was sad to see him leave this world and we were friends until the day he died, and there's just, there's too much, too many, too many things," cried Danna Spencer.
She helped run "Gray's" with her then husband who died at 59 from cancer last month. They raised their son there, who's made the tough decision to say goodbye to the store on his dad's birthday.
"It's definitely the end of an era as we know it," said Jonah, "Today was probably the busiest day that this store has seen in the past ten years."
That's why Jonah called it quits. There's just too much competition around, now, and not enough customers coming into the country's oldest general store.
"Most of the local neighbors who came through, I haven't seen in years and it was good to see them again and all the good blessings that they had," said Jonah.
Timothy Miranda has been coming there since he was a kid. Sunday, he brought his son in for some last minute memories.
"Well, I can remember buying a lot of penny candy and standing in front of those cases, taking forever to pick out what I wanted," said Miranda, "We used to sit on grain bags and drink our soda and eat our candy."
Safe to say, there were a lot of memories locked up in the old place as the door closed for the final time.
Owner Jonah said he's not sure what's next for the store. He's hoping maybe another family member will take it over, or someone else will buy it and open it back up to continue the tradition.
