CityView Magazine

business shopping. Longtime Fayetteville residents fondly recall the places where they grew up shopping with their own families. One of the longest operating department stores in Fayette- T ville was The Capitol. It was first established in 1912 by Jacob and Kalman Stein, who immigrated from Lithuania, and was open until the early 1990s. Downtown The place to go to spend your dough BY KELLY TWEDELL & REBEKAH SANDERLIN he historic downtown area today is bus- tling with coffee shops, cafes, bars, boutiques and even aſter hours dance clubs. In the city's earlier days it was a hub for government and Chavonne said that his mother would use the wages she earned working in the tobacco warehouse on Gillespie Street to take him to The Capitol, usually on Labor Day, to stock up with a few pairs of jeans and a pair of shoes to last for the school year. Mayor Tony Chavonne grew up in Massey Hill and re- called shopping with his mother. For groceries his family fre- quented King's Grocery in Massey Hill and, just like today, they relied on the Massey Hill Hardware Store for any and everything because the store has a history of providing pa- trons with an uncommon level of service. According to historic papers, one of the early leaders in fine clothing for men and boys, selling hats and furnishings, was the family of J.A. Burns & Co. Later, other main stores down- town included Sears, J.C. Penney, Belk, Fleishman's Big Store, Ed Fleishman & Brothers and Leon Sugar's. Remaining a loyal customer, Chavonne ended up buying Joanne Chavonne's engagement ring from Mrs. Stein's jewel- ry store, tucked away in the corner of The Capitol. He chuck- led as he recalled financing the symbolic bauble with a loan against his car that cost him 18 percent. "One of my fondest memories was coming downtown at CityViewNC.com | 29

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