Storekeeping in the country was a challenging business. It is no wonder that many country stores were partnerships. Someone always had to mind the store.

The goods and services offered during store hours were indispensable to the well-being of the rural community, central to its economy. But work behind the scenes when the shutters were put up was just short of endless. The little cash that came in over the counter had to be counted and put away; accounts had to be gone over; the store's own bills had to be paid; and orders had to be prepared.

Judging from the bundles of invoices, statements, and order records that lay stacked in the upper storeroom of the Altay Store when it was acquired, founding partners Roswell Sheperd, Josiah Jackson and Charles Clark had a complicated tiger by the tail. In addition to the normal handling of hardware, footware, groceries, notions, tools, books and clothing over the counter, the partners operated a gristmill and sawmill and shipped butter, eggs and other fresh foods from the country to Elmira and New York City.

The Altay Store stocked most of the same staples as the old frontier trading post and sold or, like the old trading post, bartered them away. However, operations like those of the partners in the little hamlet of Altay were many times more complex than those at the pioneer trading post.

The Altay Store was built about 1848 when new owners took over the business. The structure's deep frieze, heavy cornice and pilasters declare its debt to the Greek Revival style.

The store, located in the tiny Finger Lakes hamlet of Altay, closed its doors in 1899, and for the next 70 years the building stood unused. When it was dismantled and moved to the village in 1970, it had suffered from disuse and decay, but there had been only negligible change to the interior. Its counters, shelves and cupboards, although empty, were still in place. They are now stocked with hundreds of items of general merchandise corresponding to the store's own records from the 1840s, '50s and '60s, which were found intact in the building's attic.