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The year was 1908. It was the height of American Industry and lumber mills crowded the waterfront of the small town of Washington, North Carolina. The intersection of Market and Main Streets abounded with people doing business and shopping at this hub of commerce.
It was here, a few doors down from this intersection that R.L. Stewart opened Stewart's Jewelry Store. Two years later, he would build at 121 North Market Street and move his jewelry store to this location where it still remains.
For nearly a century, Stewart's Jewelry Store has been a mainstay of downtown Washington. In the 1950's, R.L. Stewart asked his son, A. Thomas Stewart, to come home to Washington from Houston, Texas where he worked as a chemical engineer. Thomas Stewart and his wife, Virgil, ran the family business for the next thirty years. Today, their daughter, Betty Stewart, maintains the family tradition. |
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| The Stewart family not only has a long tradition of service in Stewart's Jewelry Store, but in civic service as well: R.L. Stewart was mayor of Washington at the turn of the century; his son, Thomas Stewart, served as mayor to the city for twelve years from the late 50's to the early 1970's; and R.L. Stewart's grandson, Thomas Stewart's nephew, L. Stewart Rumley, was elected mayor of Washington in 1996, retiring in 2006.
Over the past hundred years, many valued employees have worked at Stewart's Jewelry Store. |
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