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By Mary Beth Martin
Rappahannock News Staff Writer
Twenty-five years ago Jim and Phyllis Swindler opened the doors to their new Country Manor store on Lee Highway. Over the years the store experienced great growth and serious setbacks, but it has always remained a family business and will continue as one for another generation.
Swindler retired from the Air Force as a senior technical sergeant in 1971 and the family moved to Sperryville. Their job experiences prepared them to run a gift store and fruit stand they bought from Roy and Annabel Swindler, his great uncle and great aunt. They called it House of Baskets.
In 1973 they decided to build a larger store and construction began in the early spring. Contractor Woodrow Coughlin built the 10,880 square foot building without a blueprint or plans.
They built on property at the edge of the Shenandoah National Park that they bought from Swindler’s father. They sited it on a picturesque knoll surrounded by expansive pastures and located several hundred feet from Lee Highway.
Phyllis’ brother-in-law Donnie Carroll came from Massachusetts to install the electrical wiring in the building. After completing the work, he and his wife Helen decided to remain in Sperryville and became partners in Country Manor.
On July 13, 1973 a Warrenton disc jockey, Tbm Cat Reader, orchestrated the opening. Helen, Phyllis and daughters Bobette and Natalie, then 9- and 12-years-old, wore oldfashioned dresses and bonnets, a custom they continued for a number of years.
However, the timing couldn’t have been worse with the gas crisis that hit the country that summer. “It was a night
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