Four hurt after nearly century-old former Grandy general store burns down

[photo courtesy Lower Currituck Fire and Rescue]

Four people, including two children, have been hospitalized with burns after an overnight fire destroyed a nearly century-old former general store in lower Currituck County.

Lower Currituck Fire and Rescue Chief Vernon Hart said they were called to the 6400 block of Caratoke Highway in the village of Grandy around midnight Friday.

The four people living in the two-story building built in 1926 at the corner of U.S. 158 and Grandy Road were transported by Currituck Fire and EMS to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital. An update on their condition was not yet available.

Firefighters were still on scene this morning dousing hot spots, but the structure was a total loss.

The cause of the blaze is not yet known, and is under investigation by the Currituck County Sheriff’s Office and North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation.

Also responding to the fire were the Crawford Volunteer Fire Department, Southern Shores Fire Department, Corolla Fire and Rescue and Currituck Fire and EMS.

Grandy native Becky Woodhouse Howard shared this with us on Facebook:

It is with deep sadness that I write this post today. My parents, Ola and Orville Woodhouse, ran that as a General Store and Grandy Post Office for several years.

Married in 1932, and lived upstairs while running the business downstairs. In 1936, my older sister was born and they moved just down the lane on Grandy Rd. and became more involved in growing potatoes.

The store continued on and was operated for years by Mary and Ambrose Doxey. I used to ride my bike to the store and pick up odds and ends for my mother and grab some penny candy, too. It was always a gathering place for the men to sit and play checkers and talk about hunting or fishing.

Kenneth and Lillian Waterfield took over the store for several years, too. After that, it passed through many people for sandwich shops, gift shops, and other businesses.

It made me so happy to see people restore the beauty of the old building and my prayers for a full and speedy recovery are with them.

A piece of our history in Grandy has been lost.

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Sam Walker was news director for OBXToday.com, Beach 104, 99.1 The Sound, Big 94.5 WCMS and Z 92.3 from August 2011 to March 2022.