Finally closed 94 years after it opened, today it appears that Slayton Mercantile has found a new lease on life as an entertainment venue. In recent times the building has hosted a
fundraiser hoedown for the Lavina School Association, a
pottery show and sale, a fundraiser for the Billings-based International Deaf Education Association, an
old-fashioned community dance and auction in support of school activities, scholarships and community projects and the
fifth annual Lavina Spirits haunted house.
We can now say with relative certainty when the store closed. The following newspaper article, from the Billings Gazette, apprises us that the store was to have closed on August 22, 2004 and that an auction would be held, selling off dozens of antiques from the building.
A central character in the life of the town of Lavina for its entire life, Slayton Mercantile was without a doubt the best known and most visited of all the buildings in the town. For much of those 94 years it was the town's major supplier of everything from farm implements to food and dang near everything in between. It was even the post office for about 13 years, from 1910 to 1923, when the post office moved across First Avenue into the old Lavina State Bank, which had failed that year.
Slayton Mercantile's antiques
slated for auction
ED KEMMICK Of The Gazette Staff | Aug 2, 2004
The general store, which sells food, housewares, hardware, Montana-made goods and Western-themed souvenirs, will stay open until Aug. 22. On Aug. 28, Tryans Auction Center of Billings will conduct an auction at the store, selling off hundreds of antiques, some of which have been on display for years and some of which the Ainslies have only recently discovered in the expansive building.
The original Slayton Mercantile, a wood-frame building, was constructed in 1908 and burned down in 1910. It was rebuilt in brick two [months] later. The store was renamed several times over the years and was called the Lavina Country Store when the Ainslies bought it.
They restored the original name and in 2000 succeeded in having the Slayton Mercantile listed on the National Register of Historic Places. They also repainted the washed-out "Slayton Mercantile Co." signs on the front and the south side of the building, replaced the roof, refinished the fir floors and put up a new awning out front.
Lavina, 45 miles northwest of Billings on Highway 3, had a population pegged at 209 by the 2000 census, and word of the store's closing spread quickly.
The problem in recent years has been that while more cars have been whizzing past the store on Highway 3, thanks to recent upgrades to the road, fewer of them were stopping at the mercantile.
From the Billings Gazette