Mount Airy historians may think they've died and gone to heaven Sunday.
That's when Walt Dennison will auction more than 500 items that have been stored in his building at 2 S. Main St., the oldest surviving commercial structure in Mount Airy.
Town history buffs will have a chance to bid on nearly a century's worth of documents and records, merchandise and fixtures from the stores that have conducted business from Mr. Dennison's building.
The auction will begin at 11 a.m. at the Mount Airy Firemen's Activities Building at Route 27 and Twin Arch Road.
Mr. Dennison, who runs Dennison's Trackside Hobbies at 2 S. Main St., has been sorting through the boxes in his basement for two months, selecting the items for auction. The goods sit in a trailer next to his store, ready to be transported to the activities building.
"Much of the town's history is recorded in these papers," Mr. Dennison said of the old binders that fill the trailer.
He said he had several reasons for organizing the auction, called the "Centennial Plus" auction because many of the items predate the town's 1894 incorporation.
Mr. Dennison thought the auction would tie in nicely with some of Mount Airy's centennial events that have taken place this year.
"I also needed to clean the place up," he said.
Built in 1884, the building at 2 S. Main St. survived two major fires that hit Mount Airy in the first quarter of this century.
Originally owned by William Hood, the building housed Hood's general store from 1885 to the mid-1950s. Shortly after it was built, it housed the Mount Airy Post Office temporarily. And Watkins Five and Dime was the occupant from 1958 to 1976, when Mr. Dennison bought it.
The auction items include most of the business records from Hood's store, some postal records and items from the Five and Dime.
"I have all the ledgers from the very first day Mr. Hood went into business in 1885," Mr. Dennison said.
One can get a glimpse of daily life in Mount Airy a century ago by reading the entries in the old ledgers from Hood's store. One entry from 1887 shows that O. M. Spurrier paid $1.70 for a pair of pants, a half-pound of tobacco and one spool of cotton. An invoice shows that on April 4, 1915, Hood's store bought 19 tons of lime from Blair Limestone Co. for $72.20.
A quick look around Mr. Dennison's trailer of auction items reveals more of the old days.
There's an Acme five-minute ice cream maker, a box filled with containers of "Esquire Suede Shoe Kit Cleaner," Mr. Dennison's wife's collection of 1940s costume jewelry, old Christmas decorations from Watkins Five and Dime and even a male mannequin with no arms.
"We have a complete woman [mannequin] here somewhere," Mr. Dennison said.
For military buffs, there's a vintage Eisenhower-style Army uniform from World War II.
"When I was in the military, it was in the stock room, and they were going to throw it away," Mr. Dennison said of the uniform.
Other auction items include old adding machines, light fixtures, penny candy jars, wooden ironing boards and a set of Victorian-era dress hoops. Railroad memorabilia, from Mr. Dennison's own collection, will also be sold.
Mr. Dennison plans to donate some of the items and part of the proceeds from the auction to the town's Centennial Committee, which is planning to establish a Centennial Museum.
He's not keeping anything.
"It has no personal value to me other than seeing that some of the materials do get preserved," Mr. Dennison said.
For more information, call Walt Dennison at 301-831-7211.