Let's head to Madison, where Teresa Litschke discovered, if you're ready to head outside, you might wanna head to this historic country store that has something for just about everyone.

[gentle upbeat music] - Madison is historic and charming.

- [Michael] Hey, good morning.

How are you?

- It's a small community of people.

Everybody knows everybody, really.

- [Michael] I gave you a discount on this, Ms. Mavis.

- [Ms. Mavis] Thank you, sugar boy.

- Old country charm [laughs] is what I would say.

- [Teresa] Locals sure are proud of their town, built along the Dan River and, yes, chock-full of history.

- [Michael] Madison was founded in 1818 and named after James Madison, our former US president.

It was originally founded because of the river trade that was happening.

Then it became for tobacco sales.

- [Teresa] To supplement the growing commerce in town, a store called Penn Hardware opened on West Murphy Street in 1908.

- It was also a hotel.

Hotel Sterling, Webster, was on the second floor.

And then after that closed down, it became Knight and Suggs Funeral Home upstairs.

- [Teresa] In the mid-90s, it became Madison Dry Goods and Mercantile, most recently purchased by Michael "Smitty" Smith in 2023 and renamed Madison Dry Goods and Country Store.

- This has a little bit of everything.

We carry hats, jewelry, clothing for men and ladies, even some children.

We have antiques, we have food.

A lot of the food items on the country store side are local.

- I was here the other day, and we bought a soup mix over in the part where you eat over there, and it's worked out pretty good.

Potato soup.

[laughs] - [Teresa] Talk about knowing everybody, when Smitty decided to open a restaurant in his store, he couldn't think of anyone better to do it than Jennifer Briggs.

- Jennifer and I actually grew up together.

- Yeah, we went to school together.

So we already knew each other.

We're familiar and all.

- I noticed all the baking that she had been doing on the internet to advertising for herself, and so I wanted to incorporate her into the dry goods experience when people come in here.

- [Teresa] You can just imagine the smells coming from her kitchen.

- [Jennifer] So we do homemade sourdough bread made here.

We do homemade cinnamon rolls.

- Big supporter of any cinnamon rolls.

Yes.

- She loves them.

- They're big cinnamon rolls.

- Unfortunately, we missed the cinnamon rolls, which is what brought us here, but we're excited to try the food.

- [Teresa] Jennifer's talent for more savory dishes is just as delicious.

- So a hot bar with all sorts of good, home-cooked foods, desserts, and baked goods.

So yeah.

- [Jennifer] We do, like, meat loaves, baked chicken.

- Had baked macaroni and cheese and green beans.

- [Interviewer] How is it?

- Very good.

- Homemade chicken and dumplings.

Just the good stuff that you get at grandma's house.

- [Teresa] I'm not sure if grandma offers music after lunch, but Madison Dry Goods occasionally does in the community room upstairs.

- [Michael] We also have vendor spaces upstairs for antiques, vintage items, pottery, woodwork.

- [Teresa] There's also museum space upstairs, honoring the building's days as a funeral home and a hotel, with plenty of lingering guests that make themselves known from time to time.

- Some people have seen an apparition of a young girl on the second floor through the windows.

We've also had customers whose necklaces have fallen off their neck in the exact same location leaving one of the museums upstairs.

- Sometimes when nobody's here, like, you'll hear footsteps and you'll see the lights kind of jiggle a little bit.

And yeah, it's pretty wild.

[laughs] - [Teresa] It's all part of the charm that keeps customers coming back.

- And the fact that it's been preserved here, and you can kind of still walk in and kind of experience that.

- [Teresa] And that not only goes for the space, but how customers are treated as well.

- We hope that when you leave here that you feel like you've been back home.

And when you come in here, that you feel loved, that you feel cared for, and that you take a little bit of that home with you as well.

[upbeat music] - Madison Dried Goods and General Store is located at 234 Main Street in Madison.

You can stop by between 10:00 AM and 7:00 PM, Monday through Saturday.

And for further assistance, you can call them at 336-949-4499 or find them on Facebook.