The Greenville Army & Navy Store has been a Main St. staple since 1946. To put those 70+ years in perspective, when Harry Henry Zaglin opened his store in downtown’s historic West End, WWII had just ended the year prior, no person had ever stepped foot on the moon, TV shows were still black + white, and Barbie had yet to be introduced to the world.
Harry Zaglin’s parents, Rabbi Charles Zaglin and Evelyn Rose Zaglin, moved from Lithuania to the United States in 1907. The family later moved to Greenville around 1912 when Harry’s father was called to serve as a rabbi in the area. Harry’s son, Jeff, stepped in to manage the store in the mid-1980s. The Greenville Army Store has always specialized in knives, camping gear, military clothing, and personalized dog tags. And back in the day, the store would occasionally even make pairs of foam rubber hips for local proms.
The store’s current home, a 6,000 sq. ft., two story building owned by the Zaglin family that sits at 660 S. Main St., is now for sale for $1,290,000. In the meantime, the Greenville Army Store will continue to remain open to the public.
Like so many Greenvillians, our team can’t remember a Main Street where this store doesn’t exist. With the potential sale of the Greenville Army Store building, Cook’s Station moving to their new + expanded space on Buncombe Street, and The Avant luxury condos going up across the street, this little corner of the West End is going to look pretty different for the next generation of Greenville residents. If you had to #BeTheBroker and pick new tenants for these spaces, what would you like to see here? Let us know.👇
