Vernon Community Store

At the corner of highways LA 146 and LA 148 in Jackson Parish, Louisiana, sits what remains of the Vernon Community Store. Nature is very much reclaiming the structure, and it has seen better days.

I found very little information online about this general store and its history. In fact, this post from the Abandoned Louisiana Facebook page in 2020 is where I learned of its name.

I had noticed the building several times while driving to bass fish on Caney Lake outside nearby Chatham and always made a mental note to return and create some images of it while it still stands.

As I pulled up on this particular Sunday morning, the air was sticky. Hot August heat with the humidity to match immediately fogged up the lens on my Nikon Z50.

I took a couple of shots around front by the chimney, and then a white truck pulled up, which turned out to be the landowner. He informed me that the land was posted, but after talking with him for a few minutes, I learned he knew some of my immediate family and that I could stay and photograph it (for which I am forever grateful).

If I understood him correctly, he mentioned the store was well over 70 years old and that strong winds had brought down the front awning portion not too long ago (Dang, I would love to have created some images of it in that state!). This article from the Jackson Parish Journal has a picture of the storefront still intact.

I enjoy meeting friendly people (especially ones who permit me to photograph places on their property) and thanked him for it as well.

I only hate that I hadn’t discovered the store sooner in order to photograph it in a better state. These types of old country general stores have so much history and character to them, and are some of my favorite subjects to find and photograph.