Thomas A. Barbery & Company

Thomas Albert Barbery (1896-1972) married Ennis Faye Grimm in McDowell County, West Virginia, in 1920.  Thomas served in World War I as a supply sergeant with Company A, 217th Engineers from July 20, 1918, to February 10, 1919. After the war ended he ran the Thomas A. Barbery & Company store from 1922 to 1932 in the building on Vermillion Street that later became Mick or Mack in 1934 and then Homer Ball’s Athens Market in the 1950s. 

Barbery’s was a general merchandise store that carried a very diverse collection of goods including groceries, material for dresses and suits, shoes, and hardware.

About 1932 he moved his store across the street into the Barbery Building.

Thomas closed and sold the store in 1949. He continued serving the citizens of Athens and the surrounding area as a realtor. He died on October 21, 1979.

The Barbery building served many others after the General Merchandise store  closed. William Bone purchased the building on April 1, 1949, and opened his Athens Department Store. More information about the Department Store appears in another article in this section. At one time the building was a pet shop and later a boutique. Apartments upstairs were rented throughout these years. 

The building was demolished in 1998.