Oldest-Operating Store in Country Reopens Its Doors

A 228-year-old business has returned to the community of Little Compton. 

Gray's General Store in the Adamsville section of Little Compton, once credited as the oldest-operating general store in the United States, has reopened its doors, reports The Associated Press. 

The store has reopened on a seasonal basis to sell antiques and other items, according to The Associated Press. 

Gray's General Store, which opened in 1788, closed last year after owner Grayton Waite died from esophageal cancer. 

Grayton's then 21-year-old son, Jonah Waite, inherited the general store and its accompanying estate. 

"This has been a crash course in life with dealing with what happens and having all of this property," said Waite back in 2012. At the time, Waite was entering his senior year at the University of Hartford, studying journalism. 

The business that once served as the community's source for groceries and mail - it was Rhode Island's first post office - closed its doors one last time in 2012, until now. 

Generations of villagers once frequented Gray's Store on Main Street for bread, milk and cheese before big-box grocer's like Shaw's and Stop and Shop moved in and pulled business away.

The Waite family has run the store since 1879. In 2007, Gray's was officially proclaimed "the oldest continuously running general store in the country."