Our story
156 years on Central Avenue.
Four years after Appomattox, Col. H.M. Cook opened a small mercantile in Centerville, Texas. Seven generations later, the doors are still open — same family.
1869
Cook Mercantile is founded
Col. H.M. Cook opens a small mercantile in Centerville, Texas — four years after the close of the Civil War.
1874
The store follows the railroad
The store moves to Buffalo, Texas to be nearer the rail line that was reshaping commerce across the state.
1883
Belton becomes home
Operations relocate to Belton; the store opens at the current site on East Central Avenue the following year.
1896
Cook, Cochran & Company
Thomas A. Cook joins the store, beginning a new chapter and a name that would last for decades.
1904
T.W. Cochran & Company
Harry T. Cochran and Jesse S. Blair take over operations, carrying the store into the new century.
1917
Cochran, Blair & Potts
The name we still carry today. A handshake-era partnership of three Belton families.
1929
Fire and rebuild
A devastating fire nearly ends the story. The store rebuilds, reopens, and outlasts the Great Depression.
1970
The Potts family takes full ownership
Roy and Jean Potts purchase the store outright, beginning the family era that continues today.
1990s
The second-floor museum opens
Jean Potts curates a museum upstairs — old ledgers, 1930s mannequins, china sets, vintage cash registers.
2016
The largest renovation since 1926
A careful restoration brings the building forward without sanding off its history.
Today
The seventh generation
Robert Potts Jr., Ashley Potts, and Michael Potts run the store — seven generations after Col. Cook opened the doors.
Upstairs
The second-floor museum
In the 1990s, Jean Potts began curating the upper floor as a museum of the store itself: original leather-bound ledgers, 1930s mannequins in their original felt hats, the wedding china sets that outfitted half of Bell County, brass cash registers, newspapers from the day Belton got electricity.
It's open during regular store hours, and there's no admission. Just take the stairs.
Recognized
A Texas Historical Marker
The Texas Historical Commission has marked the storefront at 221 East Central Avenue as a state historical landmark — one of a handful of continuously operating businesses in the state with that distinction.
