By Raygan Swan, NASCAR.COM
How NASCAR wife Lindy Hornaday came about starting a retail business is a little like a movie.
A sort of Steel Magnolias wrapped in Fried Green Tomatoes type of movie you’d love to lose yourself in one Sunday afternoon, blanketed by the gray of a rainy sky.
The scene is set inside an old farmhouse in rural North Carolina where one West Coast woman discovers her lifelong ambition to open an antique shop and is inspired by the whimsical and sentimental life of one little old lady named of Miss Estelle Shinn.
“She is how we came to name my store,” said Hornaday who a decade ago won several acres the farmhouse sat on in an auction. Coming from California, Hornaday had never even seen an auction but from that day on her vision was clear.
Race shops and garages were built on the land but the farmhouse, over 100 years old, remained untouched until one day Lindy’s husband, Truck Series driver Ron Hornaday, encouraged her to have a go at it and turn it into an antique shop.
Early mornings and late nights were spent in Miss Estelle’s attic where Lindy learned the life story of the woman, the woman Mooresville, N.C. called the “hat lady.” She was born in the house and died in the same dwelling 97 years later. She lived alone most of her adult life and never married.
“There I was in this attic surrounded by the entire history of this woman’s life and I couldn’t bring myself to throw anything away,” Lindy recalled.
Apparently Miss Estelle wasn’t keen on throwing things out. In fact, Lindy believes she kept most everything given to her throughout her years in the house.
“I found a pot holder pinned with a note that said ‘Aunt Betty… birthday 1957.’ It was amazing, I had never seen so much stuff before in my life,” Lindy said. “And she kept tons of tattered stationary, cards, letters, etc.” (Continued)
Rubber bands, stacks of newspapers, calendars, knitting, church literature, corncobs and even a KFC bucket, of all things, were found. She even came across a poem Miss Estelle wrote. It was a humorous bit about getting old and how forgetful you become.
Lindy had it reprinted on a T-shirt and has it on display at her store, Miss Estelle’s Place. It’s a fitting namesake for the antique shop that began in that old farmhouse in 1997 and is now a sprawling, 20,000-square-foot enterprise that comprises four different retail venues relocated in Downtown Mooresville.
But Miss Estelle’s Place remained in the farmhouse for almost 10 years until Lindy and her husband decided to sell the property. Tom Logano, Sprint Cup Series driver Joey Logano’s father, purchased the land and race shops to help his son’s career, but only on the condition he would not demolish Miss Estelle’s house.
And he held up his end of the bargain for as long as he could. The property changed hands one final time and eventually all that remained was a red dirt spot where the house once stood and one single giant Oak tree.
Ron (Hornaday), being a sentimental sap himself at times, went and hung a tire swing from one of the tree’s sturdier limbs.
Lindy salvaged and refurbished as much of the old house as she could before the demolition crew converged on the property.
She ripped out the staircases, cut out windows, pulled off mantles and unhinged doors all to refurbish and reuse in her new location so Miss Estelle’s farmhouse, in a matter of speaking, could go on living.
Lindy built new furniture from old furniture taken from the house, she bagged up tons of poems and literature for the church and she sold Miss Estelle’s rather large hat collection.
But for a keepsake, Lindy set one hat aside.
“I loved her blue church hat with the bow, I have it at the store today as a tribute to Miss Estelle,” she said.
That hat symbolizes a relationship Lindy somehow built with a woman she had never even met. But she felt as if she knew everything about the lady who lived and died in that farmhouse; the farmhouse she breathed new life into and no longer was it a place neighbor kids thought was haunted.
A few years ago, Lindy found her present location at 101 South Broad Street in Mooresville. There she manufactures and sells vintage signs, shabby chic furniture, baby clothes and still collects a wide array of antiques for sale.
Lindy and her Miss Estelle’s Place offer these things and just about anything else your imagination can create. The direction for the store comes from Lindy—a whimsical and sentimental woman just like Miss Estelle herself and the same lady who once upon a time painted tiny pieces of art on ladies’ fingernails for extra tire money for her husband’s race car.
Each spring, Lindy is reminded of Miss Estelle because of the wonderful garden she grew that continued to bloom years after she had passed.
“She loved to garden and had some pretty exotic blooms,” Lindy said. “I remember I found in her garden where she had marked her favorite flowers with chenille pipe stem cleaners shaped into hearts. Things like that, I just loved about her.”
Anytime Lindy can remember Miss Estelle through her store or visiting her grave up the road from the old farmhouse she does.
“I’ll never forget, I went to place some of the flowers from her garden on her grave but I didn’t know where it was,” Lindy recalled. “I said quietly ‘I need some help Miss Estelle’ and I walked right to her headstone.”
Little pieces of magic from Lindy’s experience in the farmhouse and her adventure through Miss Estelle’s history surrounds and pours over the store today.
“She was such a special lady,” Lindy said. “Anytime I can do something for her I try to give back to her.”