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Each month, we’ll throw a dart at a map and write about where it lands.

LOCATION: 188 N. Trade St., Matthews

188 N. Trade St., Matthews

Charm for Years

From the Saturday farmers market to bags of Kritter Korn, downtown Matthews brings the quaint

WHEN IT COMES to small-town downtowns, it’s hard to out-charm Matthews.

There’s the Carolina Beer Temple, which operates out of a former post o ce, built in 1939 on North Trade Street. There’s the locally famous 121-year-old Renfrow Hardware across the street, where you can get live chicks or bags of dried “Kritter Korn” to feed the squirrels and chipmunks.

On the bustling corner of North Trade and John streets, you can check for bargains at the ZABS Place thri store, sta ed by young people with special needs. If you cross the intersection and browse baseball cards at AAA Collectibles, two guys named Jim will help you.

Matthews’ downtown has that walkable urban vibe that people crave these days and a mix of shops and restaurants— some of which have been around for decades, others that bring a brand-new buzz. It oods with produce buyers who come every Saturday to the Matthews Farmers Market.

A 1988 Charlotte Observer headline posed a question that, 33 years later, seems laughable: “Can Matthews keep its charm?” It reads, in part: “Other Matthews town leaders and merchants also have become concerned, enough so that the town council is considering spending $29,500 to study ways to preserve the downtown’s historic avor.”

Archives don’t reveal whether the council greenlit the study. If it did, it was money well spent. If they didn’t, perhaps Matthews’ charm could not be stopped. —Cristina Bolling

$3000 value