By April 1, Dennison's Trackside Hobbies will still be selling model trains and associated gadgets. It will remain near the train tracks on Main Street.
It just won't be in Mount Airy anymore.
Walt Dennison will leave the oldest store in town when he and his wife, Nina, move the hobby shop to Main Street in Berlin on the Eastern Shore.
"I don't even have to change my address much," said Mr. Dennison, whose family business has been a fixture on Mount Airy's Main Street since 1976.
"I'll be in business here through March 25," Mr. Dennison said. "After that, we'll be packing up and ready to open the following Saturday."
With him he takes a great deal of the spirit that many people feel is the heart of the downtown business district. "We feel the loss of any business in town, but oven more so when we lose a stalwart to the area," Mayor Jerry Johnson said. "We're not losing a business, but we are losing Walt."
It is true that the town is not losing its well-visited model train shop. The Brunswick Shops, a tenant in Mr. Dennison's building which also sells model trains, will expand into Mr. Dennison's space.
And the Four County Society of Model Engineers will continue to set up elaborate model train displays there.
But merchants and residents still feel they are losing something.
"It's hard to believe he's going," said Rick Lawson, co-owner of Ben Gue Antiques and Gifts, at 17 years old another Main Street mainstay. "I hate to see him go, but I don't think I can change his mind."
"Walt's a sweetheart, and we're really going to miss him. He's going to be surprised to know that because I always give him such a hard time," Arthur Perry, manager of the Brunswick Shops said.
The Dennisons will continue to own the historic building, which at different times has housed a general store, the Mount Airy post office and the Watkins Five and Dime.
Mr. Dennison operated the five and dime store for a year before changing it to a hobby shop. Because of his penchant for model trains, he made it exclusively train-oriented about eight years ago.
The Dennisons decided about two years ago that they wanted to live and do business in Berlin, the town where the couple had vacationed for many years and one reminiscent of the Mount Airy Mr. Dennison moved to in 1952.
"Berlin is like Mount Airy was 20 years ago," Mr. Dennison said, reclining in the chair of his cluttered office in back of the store. "In Mount Airy, we have had this migrating of people, and it is not as charming as we used to think it was."
He said he misses the Mount Airy of his younger years but that the decision to move has more to do with the advantages they see in Berlin than with any shortcomings of Mount Airy.
"It was a very cozy atmosphere," Mr. Dennison said of the Shore town. "They have a lot of different shops downtown. In the hardware store, there is a wood-burning stove and there are chairs around the stove.
"The downtown area is pretty much the same, size-wise, but you don't have all the development around the town," Mr. Dennison said. "You go out of the downtown area and you're in open country."
"I think it will be great," said Mrs. Dennison. "It's a laid-back community."
Mr. Dennison doesn't expect his shop to be as popular in Berlin as it is in Mount Airy, at least not at first. But since there are no other complete model train stores on the Eastern Shore, he won't have to worry about competition.
"Almost every customer I have talked to about the move has said they go to Ocean City maybe once or twice a year. They said they would look me up and maybe do their ordering from me when they visit," he said.
Mr. Dennison said he is excited about the move. And Dale Corn, 14, who does odd jobs around the shop, said he excited for his boss.
"He's real nice, and I'm glad for him," said Dale, parking the bike he said he rides "a mile and a half" every day to get to the shop. "He is doing something that is better for him, but I know that everyone here will miss him."