Judd's Store: a step back in time.

• Author: Madison, Rachel
• Position: Around Utah: SOUTHERN AREA

Though Tiffany Taylor is the owner and manager of JUDD'S STORE in St. George, she mostly considers herself the store's main memory keeper. That's because nearly every customer who stops in has a memory to share with her about a past experience at Judd's.

"It's amazing the stories you hear," she says. "Everyone has some kind of connection. I kind of feel like I'm more of a memory keeper, and you can't really mess with the memories or change too much because people will go away and come back and want to see the same things here."

Memories play a big role at Judd's Store because of its history in the area. The store was built in 1911 by Thomas Judd, a prominent businessman in Southern Utah who also served as mayor of St. George for a time. The store, now in its 114th year, is currently the oldest business in St. George.

"The store opened as a general mercantile. It had fabric, sugar, flour, kerosene--a little bit of everything," says Taylor. "You really could get everything, including the kitchen sink, because you could order it from a catalog."

The store opened across the street from what was then the Woodward School, where most St. George kids got their early education, and many still have memories of crossing the street to purchase candy from Judd's. "Anybody who went to school at

Woodward School has...