A Beaufort landmark is changing but will keep a familiar look. Here’s what’s planned.

The memories of a Beaufort landmark are still as fresh as the sawdust falling while the building is being transformed.

The shell of a nearly 100-year-old building on Greene Street was once home to a corner grocery where neighborhood residents knew they could leave with penny candy and lunch meat, whether they had the money that day or not.

It was only three years ago that Pruitt’s Grocery closed its doors. A few months after that, longtime owner James Pruitt died. The modest structure, with its U-shaped counter where Pruitt cut meat, also was where the shop owner lived until he could no longer live alone.

Now the building is being prepared for its second life.

A developer plans to keep the Pruitt name as he renovates the store into a two-bedroom cottage. John Trask III owns neighboring lots as well and plans to build more cottages to “develop a little sense of place on that corner,” he said this week. The shell of Pruitt’s store has drawn attention from those who once knew the store as a community gathering place.

“You would not believe the amount of people who stop by and have Pruitt stories,” Trask said. “Everybody — young, old, black, white. Everybody.”

The Pruitt’s Grocery sign could have landed in the fire pit, but instead will likely be added back to the finished home and permanently affixed by a deed requirement.

Original windows will remain, with a 7-Up sticker visible in one window and sugar-free Diet-Rite Cola in another, as will the original doors and tin roof. The original materials will remain on the front of the home and perhaps one side if the material holds up, Trask said.

The transformation reflects a larger shift in the area, away from grocery stores residents of the city’s historic district can reach by foot.

Once there were Piggly Wiggly stores on Port Republic and Boundary Street. And there was Pruitt’s.

The store had been in Pruitt’s family since 1920. He took over running the shop in 1989 after his store at Ribaut Road and Duke Street closed to make way for the Beaufort County government complex.

Joe Mack, a neighbor who helped Pruitt run the store during its final years, pulled a rusted metal sign from his house with the words “James W. Pruitt Gro.” Mack believes the sign could be from Pruitt’s previous store..

Mack says he has pictures from his original store showing Pruitt was a “big fella” and from later when he helped the grocer on Greene Street.

“I handled the money, he cut the meat,” Mack said.

Various new uses for the building had been discussed in recent years, such as a nonprofit operation or artist’s studio. The corner store is no longer viewed as a viable venture.

But perhaps business will one day return to the block.

The new building is designed in such a way to allow for commercial uses while an owner lives in the back, as Pruitt did. As the neighborhood fills in, a small shop or restaurant might follow, Trask said.

Trask plans a party at the renovated building in September. He expects the community residents will turn out and share their stories.

This story was originally published August 31, 2018 at 1:59 PM.