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By Jeanne Spath
Rappahannock News Staff Writer
Standing behind the 150 year old counter, just to your left when you walk into the Sperryville Comer Store, coowner Andy Thompson feels right at home.
“This is a great place to pick up things,” Thompson said, “People may have to pay a little more, but they don’t seem to mind having to pay for the convenience.”
Convenience is the key. The nearest grocery store to Sperryville being a 25-minute drive into Culpeper.
Thompson’s parents, Ken and Mary Thompson, moved to Rappahannock County approximately 12 years ago, followed by the younger Thompson and his wife, Dana, who moved five years ago from Dallas, Texas.
“We had been visiting and saw this neat building,” Thompson said, “there is nothing like this around Dallas. It is so neat that places like this are still around.”
While Thompson is not certain when the store first opened in Sperryville, he does have accounting books that date as far back as 1870, the ledgers neatly handwritten.
Thompson was a truck driver for a furniture company in Dallas, while Dana taught school. The hours they worked were not the best for a young family, so when they moved to Sperryville, they wanted something they could do as a family.
The idea to purchase the corner store from Randolph Claytor seemed a perfect family endeavor, and the Thompsons began renovating the property, which consists of three adjoining buildings. Three-in-one building
With the store itself already established, Dana began a boutique, but after several years decided to return to teaching. That building is now rented by Wayne and Dot Waller who operate the Apple Hill Bakery.
Through a door at the end of
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