On Oct. 9, 1927, fire ripped through the business section of the small town of Lowndesboro, Ala. When the blaze was extinguished, only two stores remained in the town of 264 people. Numerous businesses, all made of wood, were a total loss; the fire is estimated to have caused $7,000 to $10,000 in damage, according to an article in The Birmingham News at the time.

Click through the gallery at the top of this story to see photos of the store’s current condition.

Today, the Lowndes County town has only 79 residents but the people who remain are determined to preserve its history. Of the two stores that survived the 1927 fire, only one is still standing – one called DeBardelaben’s survived the fire, according the an article in The Birmingham News, but was later destroyed.

The surviving store – currently called the Will Stone Store but also known as the Old Indian Trading Post, Stone-Dryer Store or the Jimmy Crum Store – was in danger of collapse until members of the Lowndesboro Landmarks Foundation stepped in to restore it. The ca.-1820 store was donated to the town of Lowndesboro in 2011 by Reg and Lila Dryer, according to an article by The Lowndes Signal.

Lea Graves Ingram, who operates the store for the foundation, said it is not open full-time but it is used for community events. “We opened for July 4th and had a few vendors there; we did a hot dog cookout, we decorated for Halloween and had trick or treaters, etc.,” Ingram said. “We plan to have other types of events in the future. ”We also sell a few items like local cookbooks, bumper stickers and T-shirts.”

The wooden store reportedly predates the town’s foundation. A historical marker at the site says Lowndesboro, because it is situated on the Alabama River, “developed from a small community of early settlers to a thriving township in the 1830s.” With nearby ports and cotton warehouses, the town drew plenty of visitors.

Before long, Lowndesboro had hotels, the Lowndesboro Boys Academy, the Lowndesboro Female Institute, a horseracing track, numerous churches and a thriving business district. Until the fire, the business district “housed livery stables, six doctors, a dentist, grocery stores, two taverns (hotels), general stores, a Masonic Hall, and a post office,” mostly wooden structures located on the west side of Broad Street.

According to a 1927 article in The Birmingham News, a drug store and the post office were also a loss, although the postmistress saved the mail before fire reached it.

Lowndesboro’s historic district was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. It includes the Stone store, plantation homes and a C.M.E. Church topped with the cupola from Alabama’s first capitol building in Cahaba.

There is a dark chapter in Lowndesboro’s past: It was the site of the murder of civil rights worker Viola Liuzzo on March 25, 1965. The White woman was shot to death in her car following a high-speed chase by KKK members. She was transporting Black youths to demonstrations at the time. A monument was erected in Liuzzo’s memory at the site of her death on U.S. Highway 80.