One of the truly significant stories in the commercial sphere had its beginning in 1888 in Monroe, North Carolina.

In Howard E. Covington’s 1988 book, “Belk — A Century of Retail Leadership,” he wrote, “Perhaps no commercial enterprise, save the public utilities and a handful of statewide banks (some of which have failed since the book’s publication), has shaped the retail economy of the Carolinas and the Southeast as has the Belk network of department stores.

William Henry Belk opened his first store in Monroe, North Carolina, in 1888. From that beginning a network of retail department stores grew to almost 400 in sixteen states.

The growth and expansion of this family-owned enterprise is/was the stuff of ‘only in America.’”

Author LeGette Blythe presented “Mr. Belk to his reader not as a great man but as a plain man who made a success of his life’s work through a strong devotion to right and to his fellow man.” (Spartanburg, SC, Journal.)

The author said, “But most of all this book is the story of a man whose success was built on a religious faith that was as firm as it was simple, an unfailing zest for ‘trading and trafficking,’ and an unshakable belief, through good times and bad, in the future of his country.”

Belk’s philanthropy, especially to Presbyterian entities, was genuinely significant. This was carried forward and expanded beyond Presbyterian interests by his family. It could easily be a significant story unto itself.

The first Belk store opened, as I mentioned earlier, in 1888. The Washington store opened in 1936, in the former Bowers Brothers store on the north side of Main Street, as Belk-Tyler.

In 1955, the store moved across the street, into what had been Keyes Hotel and Carolina Dairies. In 1972, the move was made to Washington Square Mall, developed adjacent to what was once called the CCC Camp road.

My father, who just happened to be a native of Monroe, was manager here from the inception until 1978. He previously had opened a new store in Tarboro in 1934 and first went to work with the organization in Rocky Mount, headed by Arthur Tyler, in 1932. Mr. Tyler was a very fine man, a hard worker, firm but fair, and generous and supportive of church and civic institutions and causes.

William Henry Belk visited the Washington store only once. Those working there at the time — in the first location — remembered him as an older, rumpled, white-haired gentleman who didn’t look the part of one of the South’s business leaders.

When he entered the elevator to go to the next floor, the young female operator, observing him looking around, quickly discerned that this old fellow was looking for a spittoon, to rid himself of the juice buildup from the “chaw” of tobacco in his mouth.

She quickly told him that he couldn’t spit in the elevator, lest he really upset the owner. He complied with her warning. She didn’t have a clue who he was.

Fast forward many, many decades later, and we find that the third, and possibly the fourth, generation of the Belk family has only recently divested themselves of all ownership.

What the future holds for the Belk stores, the entire organization, I would have no way of knowing.

I do know, however, that the likes of William Henry Belk may not be seen again for a long while.

If ever.