Monroe Mercantile

William Hartwell (W.H.) Nunnally was born in 1856. He lived and farmed in Good Hope. In 1878, he married Mary Eulalia Gober of Jefferson, GA. Eulalia was a well-educated and cultured lady who had never lived on a farm. W.H. and Eulalia continued to live and farm for seven years. In 1885, they moved to Monroe, and W.H. entered the business world. James Nunnally, brother of W.H., once lived in the location where the Monroe Mercantile stands today. The property was sold to Collie Breedlove, who built the present building about 1885, and entered the dry goods business with W.H. Nunnally under the name, Nunnally, Breedlove & Company.

The business eventually took the name “W.H. Nunnally & Co.” Nunnally did not let grass grow under his feet. He established the Monroe Telephone Company, was on the Monroe Oil & Fertilizer Company board, and was Vice President of the Bank of Monroe. Soon after W.H. Nunnally died in 1930, the building and business were sold to the Gallant-Belk Company.

Gallant-Belk’s moved to the Monroe Plaza shopping mall in 1969 and was temporarily replaced by Peters & Foster. In 1972, when Peters & Foster moved into the old Big Apple store on Midland Avenue, the W.H. Nunnally location became home to Buckles Hardware. Buckles Hardware remained a mainstay on North Broad Street well into the next century. With the closure of Buckles Hardware, the W.H. Nunnally building was restored to its original glory and has become what it is today: The Monroe Mercantile.