In 1872 Samuel C. Hoge and John Miller obtained the lease for a lot facing the railroad tracks with the purpose of opening a general store. When it opened The University Record reported: “In Sewanee village, Messrs. Hoge & Miller have put up a handsome business house. The interior fittings are especially noticeable for their beauty, being finished in Black Walnut and Chestnut, oiled. The post office, in the same building, is very neatly fitted up...."
Hoge and Miller ran the store until March 5, 1894 when Hoge became the sole owner and leaseholder of the business. In June 1897, after more than two decades of ownership, Hoge sold the store to George D. Gipson, who ten years later sold the store to the Sewanee Lodge No. 544 of the Independent Order of the Odd Fellows on May 30, 1907. The Independent Order of the Odd Fellows is also known as the Three Link Fraternity, which stands for friendship, love, and truth, and whose purpose is to “improve and elevate the character of man.”
Around March 25, 1934 the building was returned to its original use as a general store when it was sold by the Odd Fellows to L.C. Winn. The building became known as WINN'S GENERAL STORE where could be purchased a variety of goods including clothing, notions, dry goods, other items common to general stores, and also offered delivery services of things purchased from the store. Raymond Winn owned the general store after his father, but during World War II, with Raymond in the armed forces, the University rented the building for use as a laundry service run by female employees and available to multiple towns in the area, including Winchester and South Pittsburg. When Raymond returned from war, the building once again became a general store, and it was during this time that some of the more unusual characteristics of the building are thought to have come about. For example, the second floor was leased to the Masonic lodge as a clubroom, which may explain the oddly arranged group of electrical outlets in the floor upstairs. There are also stories there was once a roller skating rink inside the building. Sometime around 1946, a cobbler shop also functioned as part of Winn’s store. As Winn grew older the store was eventually put up for sale.
The sale of Winn’s store perfectly coincided with Richard Riddell’s plans to open up a coffee and sandwich shop. Richard had moved to Sewanee in 1970 with his wife, Merissa Tobler, to teach history at St. Andrew’s School. Merissa also became a teacher at St. Andrew’s. After four years of teaching, Richard began to feel the itch to do something different. One day, on the way to Chattanooga, when he stopped to grab a sandwich at Milner’s Market in Monteagle an idea came to him. While inside the market, Richard noticed a couple of students from Sewanee buying sandwiches. Richard was shocked that they had driven all the way to Monteagle just to grab a sandwich, and the idea for a San Francisco style coffee house started to come together. The idea was further solidified when he picked up a Winchester paper and saw that WINN'S GENERAL STORE was for sale.
It was love at first sight when Richard walked into the store to talk to Winn about purchasing the building. As Richard said, “I just knew.” Richard proceeded to buy Winn’s for $9,000 soon after. While beer was always a draw for patrons, as seen by SHENANIGANS' opening night success, it would eventually become even more of a draw as subsequent owners, beginning with Tom and Sherri Brown in 1981, phased out the coffee shop side and the University atmosphere began to change. After Richard and Merissa moved on, the Browns began to transform coffee and sandwich shop atmosphere into today’s SHENANIGANS. Brown really emphasized the deli and pub aspect of SHENANIGANS by having his band play, adding in a grill, and promoting a lighthearted atmosphere.
Britt Brantley, the owner of SHENANIGANS from 1993 to 1995, suspects that during his ownership, the place first began to “draw the ire of the county beer board.” Coincidentally Brantley also introduced Pabst Blue Ribbon Thursdays, fifty cents a bottle, and double pitchers served in surplus glass Hellmann’s Mayonnaise jars. The Brantleys' efforts to keep tables bussed and food arriving quickly also increased profits twenty-five percent. The owners following Brantley, Kiki and Ben Beavers, tried to eliminate the fraternity party atmosphere by discontinuing beer specials and happy hour.
In the almost 50 years since SHENANIGANS opened there have been seven different owners who have each put a little bit of themselves into the building. After the Riddells, and the Browns, came Todd and Katherine Kaderabek from 1989 until 1993 who started the cooperative art gallery still thriving in the back of the building. Then the Brantleys, followed by the Beavers who greatly expanded the menu, with around eighty soups offered and different specials every day.
They were also responsible for the much needed repair to the once distinctive lean of the foundation. Brantley had previously engaged a structural engineer to make an appraisal for fixing the lean but after the engineer spent a day inside the building he stated, “I don’t know why she leans. I don’t know how to fix it. I strongly suggest you leave it alone because in my opinion she’ll never fall;” and the engineer’s prediction held true for fifteen more years until the Beavers "straightened" the building.
Following the Cammacks of the Ogre Company, the most recent owner is Point Properties with Bill Elder. The polar vortex of December 2022 froze pipes in the building that burst after closing on Christmas Eve. The extensive damage caused by the water is being repaired with Elder determined to get the place up and running again - the upstairs is open already. The success of his restoration of and improvements on Shenanigan traditions folowing the Cammacks makes us hopeful all will end well for the building, now in its third century.
Edited from Hallie Ragsdale's Shenanigans: The University of the South’s “Third Place”
Samuel Hoge built the building in 1872, to be used as a general store. In its long and varied past, the building has been a laundry facility for the ROTC during WWII, a shoe shop, a tin shop, and a wagon repair shop. Most people remember Winn’s General Store as the last business before SHENANIGANS opened.
Patricia Makris in her book "The Other Side of Sewanee" mentions it was once a grocery store run by Tom Gipson. Later Williams Anderson and George Green had a used furniture store there. Also, it was used by Mrs. Sneed as a skating rink. Henry Sewell and Arthur Long had a tin shop there. Other recent owners besides Richard W. and Merissa T. Riddell, and Tom and Sherry Brown, included Todd and Katherine Kaderabek, Robert and Teresa Brantley, William and Kerstin Beavers, the Ogre Company and Point Properties.
Photos courtesy of Mary O'Neill, University Archives, Kiki Beavers and Ina May Myers