NEW TAZEWELL, Tenn. (WVLT) -- Competition and changing lifestyles shut the Giles Feed Mill in New Tazewell more than a decade ago.

A day after Christmas, fire would close its final chapter, in Claiborne County's history.

"Being a solid wood building, once it started, it was just -- you know--almost impossible to do anything with it, " says Hershel Bowen.

Twenty five members of the Tazewell-New Tazewell Fire Department fought flames and smoke for more than five hours.

But long after the crews left, even a light rain was powerless to prevent the remaining embers from reducing kindling to ash.

"Twenty years ago, it was a lot of people came to the mill, for feed,"
Bowen says.

And, he might add, grist; for the gossip of towns and county.

Today's grandparents and great-grandparents traded as many stories as they did farming advice at R.O. Giles.

For Hershel Bowen -- the founder's son, James, was more than a landlord, more than a friend.

"He told this town needs another furniture store, and he talked me right into it, or us."

"Us," as in what would become wife Mary's 68,000 square foot home furnishings store that now fills four floors, and draws customers from four states.

"He (James Giles) more or less told me and my wife that he was fixing this building and putting us in it," Bowen says.

"That's where the friendship come in it, I guess.

But even as Mary's Home Furnishings grew, the Giles Mill,
was grinding its last feed, says third-generation owner Ricky Giles.

"We'd closed it, and weren't using it for anything more than storage," Giles says.

"What we've lost is more sentimental."

Investigators believe the fire started near the electrical junction box, according to Assistant Fire Chief Doug Newby. They have not ruled on a cause, but so far, they've found nothing suspicious, Newby says.

Bowen wonders whether Giles Mill's loss may be lost on younger generations. But he believes this truth is fundamental.

"You don't really expect when you come to work, that the building next door's burned down," he says.

"Kind of a shock."