“Do old places matter?”

That question appeared for a time in a Main Street window of the Farmers and Fishermen’s Building in Mathews Court House.

Nearly one century old, the building is now undergoing renovation. It started life as a bank in 1921, then became the home in 1934 of the previously established Hudgins Drug Store, closing early this year as Hudgins Pharmacy, several successor ownerships after the Hudgins family sold the business in 1958.

With its Mathews-typical brickwork and imposing front columns denoting its stature as a bank, the building is a landmark on Main Street and yes, it matters. We are so glad the present owner has undertaken a restoration of its interior space with a new use apparently in mind.

We wish more people would honor the past represented by our counties’ homes and business places. For reasons all of us can enumerate, they first became vacant, and then dilapidated, and then beyond repair. Sometimes, before it is too late, the...