Bookstore
ALL OFFICES & SERVICES
The Emory Mercantile (or “Merc”) provides school supplies and merchandise—all the gear you need to show off your E&H pride! Staff at the Merc also manage the E&H Online Bookstore for selecting and ordering textbooks 100% online.
The Emory & Henry Mercantile is designed to meet the needs of students and staff as well as the surrounding community. In our store, students can purchase school supplies and art supplies needed for classes. Grocery and houseware items are stocked to assist students in their needs. The Merc also carries a large line of Emory & Henry apparel and gift items.
Have your textbooks ready for the first day of class with BOOKS4U, Emory & Henry’s equitable access textbook program!
The Merc in Marion
History
Along with the Emory & Henry campus, the Mercantile shares a history in the community. In the summer of 1998, Emory & Henry College acquired a building in the commercial area of the Emory Village that would become its bookstore, called “The Merc,” representing its renovation to a style that reflected the primary function of two earlier buildings that stood on the same site.
The first building, a general store, was built in 1887 by C.B. Akers. After a fire destroyed it in 1892, it was rebuilt four years later and functioned both as a store and a post office. The store, which for several years was known as the Emory Mercantile Co., was purchased in 1931 by Fred Denton, who sold fresh vegetables and meat as well as general merchandise, including shoes, hardware and horseshoes. E&H students were attracted to its modern fountain and snack bar.
The large two-story, wood-frame building was destroyed by fire in 1962 and was replaced that same year by the current building, a one-story brick structure that for many years operated as a convenience store until it was purchased by the College.
The building was extensively renovated to provide more space for books, clothing and school supplies while recalling the appearance of an early twentieth-century mercantile.