By Scott Nicholson
Brad Harmon and his family are bringing a little “Dixie
Pride” to a longtime downtown structure.
Harmon is renovating the former Northwest Opticians office
building on King Street into a Civil War sutlery and history
center, combining his family’s local ties with those
of his distant ancestor, a Confederate veteran.
Harmon said there are currently no other businesses like the
one he’s opening. “It’s unusual and new,”
he said. “We will have a place where people can sit on
work on genealogy and their family tree.”
Harmon’s Dixie Pride will sell replica Civil War uniforms
and equipment, with gear for both collectors and living-history
re-enactors as well. The store will also have civilian clothes
of the era, and the building will even have an antebellum
architectural flair.
Harmon has always been interested in history and joined the
Sons of Confederate Veterans in 1992. The store will be a
local center for the national organization, and Harmon said
anyone with a bloodline tie to a Civil War soldier is eligible
to join. Those who have married into the bloodline are also
eligible, and there’s an affiliated group for women and
children.
“It’s an organization that honors ancestors who
fought in the war,” Harmon said. “We order and replace
tombstones of soldiers and clean up forgotten cemeteries.
We’re working with the county to try to get state markers
for Civil War trails.”
The store will also serve as camp for Harmon’s Civil
War re-enactment group, the Watauga Riflemen, who represent
the 37th N.C. Troops.
The store will not just be for Rebels, though. It will have
Union Army uniforms as well as Revolutionary War gear. Harmon
is planning collaborative efforts with the outdoor drama Horn
in the West, which tells the story of the revolution in the
North Carolina mountains.
The building already is replete with local history. Built
in the 1920’s, it was home of J.D. Rankin, a long-time
dean at Appalachian State Teacher’s College and the college’s
second president.
In the 1940s, the building was owned by the Hilliard family,
which operated a backyard garden and sold produce on the sidewalk.
Dr. Raymond Harmon bought the building in the 1950s and used
it as one of the first local doctor’s offices, and he
later helped found Watauga Medical Center before retiring
in 1978.
Brad’s uncle, Charles Harmon, moved his optometrist practice
into the building in 1982. When Charles was ready to retire
this year, he talked to Brad about the building’s future,
and they decided to stock the space with uniforms.
Brad Harmon, who is a brigadier general in the 37th N.C. Troops,
has been an avid re-enactor for years, serving as a member
of the honor guard at a ceremonial funeral for the submarine
C.S.S. Hunley. He’s also been in battle re-enactments
and other living-history events.
“I bought out a sutlery business and we made plans to
give the building new life,” Brad said. “When we’re
finished, the interior will look like a period cabin.”
The store will have a room where people can have their photographs
taken in replica uniforms or historical fashions. Harmon has
already ordered clothes that replicate those worn by Scarlett
O’Hara and Rhett Butler in the movie “Gone With
The Wind.”
The photographs will be taken against a green screen so that
different backgrounds can be digitally altered on the photos.
People can be put into movie scenes, battle scenes or other
period settings. The room will be decorated as an 1860s sitting
parlor.
The store will also contain history books, collector’s
items, and memoirs told from a Southern viewpoint. Harmon
said he has sometimes portrayed Union troops in battle, but
his genealogical loyalty is to the Stars and Bars.
His ancestor Henry Harrison Harmon was wounded in the battle
of Gettysburg and the slug remained in his shoulder for the
rest of his life. After the war, the soldier walked back to
his Chatham County home, sleeping with his shoulder submerged
in cool creek water at night to stave off pain and infection.
He ended up living to the age of 80.
Harmon’s re-enactment troop also features a piece of
equipment that once bedeviled Yankee invaders at Fort Fisher.
The cannon was served by a crew under the command of Gen.
Robert E. Lee and had the nickname “Satan.”
“When it goes off, it’s like thunder,” Brad
Harmon said.
The re-enactment group has 20 members and people will be able
to sign up at the store. Harmon’s Dixie Pride is expected
to open by March 2009.
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