Dorothea Lange Again - Orange County NC, 1939

It's probably a good thing that Dorothea Lange only spent a short time in North Carolina, or I'd overwhelm readers with photos of her subjects that are still hanging around after 74 years!

While talking to Keith Allen at a recent artist reception we got around to the recent Dorothea Lange find I wrote about in the previous blog.  Keith, who lives in the Cedar Grove area of North Carolina, asked if I knew there was another country store captured by Ms. Lange, and did I know it was also still standing.  Of course I didn't, but I wanted to know everything Keith knew about the store! This was Thursday night.

The next day I found the Lange picture (actually there are two) in the Library of Congress collection.  The photo shows a group of ballplayers and others getting ready for their July 4th baseball game at a ball field down the road.

By early Sunday morning I was at the rural crossroads known as Cedar Grove shooting away at the cluster of buildings. Seems my enthusiasm has me treating this as a breaking news story, even though the event happened seven decades ago! Forgive me.

The Cedar Grove store has a sign identifying it as the "C. H. Pender Grocery". It appears to no longer be open for business, but the structure is in much better condition than the previous Person County store.

As typical of rural crossroad communities, the intersection has several other buildings.  Another commercial building (appearing to be of the same period) sits on an adjacent corner.  The current day post office, a small, cinder block structure sits to the immediate right of the Pender store.

This route, heading north off of Hwy. 70 through Efland makes a great Sunday afternoon drive.  Before the afternoon ends you'll have a serious craving for an RC Cola and a Moon Pie!

(As always, you can click on an image for a larger version. If anyone knows more about Cedar Grove please comment with the information. Thanks...)