The History of the Cox-Lewis Building
By Sarah Hurley
Image courtesy of the NC State Historic Preservation Office.
Many customers who walk through our door begin a conversation with one of the following questions: “Didn’t this used to be a paint store?” “What was in this building twenty years ago?” And my personal favorite: “Now, I visited this same store about five years ago, but I swear it wasn’t called Minkology then. Am I crazy?” (The answer to that one can be found in our previous blog post, “Putting the ‘Mink’ in Minkology.”)
But seriously, what is the history of our store’s building? Bracketed on either side by Lumina Wine & Beer and Pat’s Hair Shop, Minkology boasts a central location on Sunset Avenue. The building’s vibrant yellow brick façade and bold granite trim are a staple of Downtown Asheboro’s architecture. The glass-covered sign over the shop door reading “Cox-Lewis Building” seems slightly out of place, more reminiscent of a law office or insurance firm than a locally-owned furniture and gift shop. But the Cox-Lewis sign is a testament to the building’s status as a monument to Asheboro’s city history.
Initially called the Lewis and Winslow Hardware Company, Cox-Lewis Hardware Co. occupied the four-bay storefront from 1907 to 1954. From 1954 to 1978, the building housed a Sherwin-Williams paint store. On July 5, 1978, beloved local business owner Richard Evans arrived with Evans Music Center, which remained in the building until moving locations in 1986.
Coincidentally, when my dad moved to Asheboro in 1984 as a teenager, he got an after-school job working for Mr. Evans as a guitar instructor and sales assistant. The first time my dad came to visit the store when I started working at Minkology a year ago, he reminisced about his days working at the music shop. “We used to keep all the keyboards in the corner here, and the guitars were lined up on the other wall. Where’s the upper-floor bathroom?” He taught guitar lessons in what is now the Minkology “paint room,” where our customers go to stock up on Annie Sloan, Wise Owl, and General Finishes. Today, my dad still plays the guitar (criminally well, might I add), and Evans Music Center is still open, located right down the road at 1008 South Fayetteville Street.
Since 1986, the Cox-Lewis building has played host to a slew of local businesses, including a mapping company, sports and recreational store, record and tape shop, art gallery, and several others. Vintage Cottage took the reins in 2013, Wendi and Ross Mink bought the business in 2021 and rebranded as Minkology, and the rest—as they say—is history.
My favorite part of walking into work every day is knowing that we’re part of a larger legacy within the Downtown Asheboro community. Every time I sweep the shop’s front breezeway, I imagine my father performing the same task in tandem, our motions overlapping across the exact same space, separated only by forty years of time—no physical distance. It brings me comfort to know that the Cox-Lewis Building is a monument to Asheboro’s past, and as a registered historical building, will remain an integral part of Sunset Avenue’s landscape for years to come.
References & Further Reading
The Architectural History of Randolph County, North Carolina. Written and photographed by Lowell McKay Whatley, Jr., compiled by Dawn McLaughlin Snotherly, and edited by Dr. Jerry L. Cross. Published by the City of Asheboro, 1985.
National Register of Historical Places: Downtown Asheboro Historic District. North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office, 2022, www.dncr.nc.gov/nr/rd0937/open.
The Randolph Room: Local History and Family Search Center. Asheboro Public Library.