Interested in history? Preservation group wants you

The Havelock Historical and Preservation Society is calling all history buffs to come out on Thursday to support the group at its first general membership meeting of the year.

The meeting will be at 7 p.m. in the restored Trader Store on Miller Boulevard.

Havelock historian Eddie Ellis will be speaking to the group about Havelock, the old railroad and local events during the Civil War.

Also highlighted will be a presentation of historic artifacts from Havelock's past.

Two projects have been at the center of the society's efforts in recent years, the restoration of the old Trader Store and the preservation of the Havelock train depot, located directly behind the store.

Society members will get to see a completed reproduction of a red and white Coca-Cola sign that was painted on the side of the Trader Store by Bob Collins.

The Trader Store had operated for nearly two centuries until closing for business for good in the 1970s, according to Jim Muse, member of the society.

"You could buy almost anything you wanted in here," he said. "Tires, batteries, shoes, clothes, thread, hats - you name it."

Inside the store, the original butcher block has been saved, along with a cheese slicer and sausage grinders.

"We have found all kinds of history in here," said Harold Rawls, president of the society's board of directors.

Original logs detail transactions made in the store back to 1901.

The store used to buy items wholesale from Lucas and Lewis of New Bern. A 1924 purchase order from J.J. Trader included sugar for eight cents a pound and cabbage for two cents a pound. One box of 125 apples cost $2.75. A dozen lanterns were bought for $7. A dozen pairs of men's overalls were bought for $16.

After the store closed for business, the structure went into disrepair until the society took an interest in having it saved. Members mounted a major restoration project that was completed in April of 2003.

The Trader Store now houses a museum with artifacts and memorabilia of Havelock.

Behind the store sits a World War II-era railroad freight train depot that the society joined together with the city to save.

The depot, originally located next to the railroad tracks on Miller Boulevard, was moved to its present location in 2006 with the help of a state grant of $100,000.

The depot has been refurbished on the outside, but remains a shell inside. The goal is to turn the depot into a railroad museum, complete with artifacts, information about the city's railroad history, model trains, and eventually, an old locomotive and boxcar.

"That's long range planning, and you need money for it," Rawls said.

The society has scheduled a pig-pickin' in September to raise money for the projects.