The Sandhills Woman's Exchange

The log cabin where the Sandhills Woman's Exchange is now located was built about 1810 at Ray's Grist-Mill which is about 2 miles northeast of the present location in Pinehurst. Shortly after the Civil War it was bought from the Ray family by Archibald McKenzie and for years was used by his family as a kitchen. The cabin had a fireplace, originally built of mud and sticks but later refaced with bricks by the McKenzies. It had two doors but no other ventilation. At night light was provided by burning pitch pine sticks. The holes in the logs where these sticks were placed are still visible.

In 1895 the cabin was a separate building from the main house and was still being used as the McKenzie Kitchen. When James W. Tufts founded Pinehurst at that time he was so charmed by the cabin that he offered to build a new kitchen for the family and the cabin was moved to its present site. It was used for some years thereafter as a as a small museum containing an old had loom, a spinning wheel, some pioneer kitchen utensils, pieces of petrified wood, arrowheads and other articles used in the Sandhills. Later the cabin was inhabited by "Uncle" Jerry Mitchell who tended a herd of tame deer in the area which became known as Deer Park. Still later Tom Cotton and his brother, former slaves, lived there.

In 1922 a resident who had recently moved to the Sandhills from Massachusetts and had seen the inception and growth of a Woman's Exchange in her community in the North, suggested that such an organization might help to increase the local household income by providing a market for items that farm women could make at home. At that time paved roads were scarce, few people had electricity and farmers' wives seldom got into town and had little spare money to spend. Thus the Sandhills Woman's Exchange began on the porch of the Way House on Peedee Road in Knollwood. A group of women banded together to visit farm women and teach them knitting, crocheting, rugmaking, sewing, baking and making of jams and jellies.

In 1923 Tom Cotton died and the cabin became the home of the Sandhills Woman's Exchange.

Today the Exchange is run by an executive board, elected every two years. Seven committee chairmen also serve for two years. New members are always welcome. There is some professional staff. Goods are left on consignment and marked up slightly. Every effort is made to sell items not found in local shops. Among the attractive articles for sale in the shop are hooked and braided rugs, knitted and crocheted bedspreads, patchwork quilts, placemats, aprons, smocks and pot holders, baby clothes and little girls' dresses, dolls, toys, knitted articles, pillows, birdhouses and feeders, pottery and cook books.

Lunch is served by the members during the spring and fall seasons.

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