Asa Knight's business prospered. His center village store in Dummerston, Vermont, grew from a modest one-story building into an imposing two-and-a-half story emporium large enough to stock an ever-expanding variety of products. Men and women came into his store trading butter, cheese, palm leaf hats, even turkeys and knitted socks for their purchases. Perhaps a quarter of Knight’s customers paid their bills in cash; most paid in goods that the merchant knew he could resell on buying trips to New York or Boston. He bought goods on six months’ credit, sold the country produce in the city, paid his bills, re-stocked his store, and anticipated some profit.

The stock in a New England country store was a geography lesson in itself. Woolen broadcloth came from England; cotton textiles from England, France, and India; linens from Ireland and Central Europe; and silks from China and Italy. Teas, coffees, spices, sugar, raisins, and dyestuffs were grown in China, Arabia, Greece, the East and West Indies, and South America. As the American economy grew, domestic goods occupied a larger place on the shelves. Plain sheeting and shirting and even calico prints were made in New England factories. Shoes, many tools, window glass, brooms, books, and paper goods were American-made as well. Garden seeds were raised and sold by New England’s Shaker communities.

Completed in 1838, the main structure of the store survived virtually unchanged until its acquisition by Old Sturbridge Village in 1968, almost a century after its doors had closed. The building was studied in detail before being moved to the museum and restored. It was discovered that the earliest part of the store, built in 1810, had been taken down in 1909. This section was reconstructed using early photographs and archaeological evidence. Extensive research on the stock in country stores of the period led to a step that was then novel for museums. Hundreds of items of stock and packaging were reproduced to furnish the store and re-create the appearance of the time when the stock was fresh and new. Based on additional research, the stock has been recently updated and made “like new” for the 1830s once again.