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Population 4,091
The Royall’s Building, located at 128 West Main Street in downtown Elkin, is the former Elkin Hospital and Turner Drug. It later became Royall’s Soda Shoppe and Drug Store, a beloved hangout for the community. But after almost one-hundred years, Royall’s closed its doors in January 2020. The Bonanza Group purchased the building and began rehabilitation on the building in March 2022. They partnered with Architectural Design Associates to prepare the historic rehabilitation plans and Garanco Incorporated, an experienced and skilled contractor, to complete the construction on the building.
The Elkin Main Street Program requested a facade design plan from the North Carolina Main Street and Rural Planning Center and their UNC Greensboro Main Street Fellows partners, and applied to the National Park Service, through Main Street America, for the Paul Bruhn’s grant to repoint the masonry building. Exterior work to the building included a new roof, repairing the masonry, repainting trim, and doors, repairing the transom, and installing a new awning.
Interior work included replacing the plumbing, electrical and HVAC exposing the original pressed tin ceilings on the first floor, restoring the plaster walls, refinishing the pine floors, and repairing or replacing all original trim, wainscotting and ceilings on the second floor, and updating the first and second floor layouts to meet the building codes. With a newly rehabilitated building, the owners were able to secure the Crazy Pig BBQ at Royall’s on the first floor of the building, and the upstairs was rehabilitated for eight offices, a shared restroom, a breakroom, and conference room for the tenants.
The project added 3,200 square feet of occupied space, a new restaurant and eight new offices. The investment in the building exceeded $1,000,000, the rehabilitation project met the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation and utilized the federal and state historic tax credit program to financially make the project work. The tax valuation increased from $178,000, to $553,000.
*Elkin won an NC Main Street Award for this property improvement.
