Grocery/eatery built in 1917 succumbs to fire at age 98

The historic Tuckahoe Trading Post, which served the Carter community through several iterations for nearly a century, was destroyed by fire Monday afternoon.

Rural/Metro firefighters were alerted about 3:30 p.m. and arrived to find extensive flames shooting from the modest, white wooden building, said Battalion Chief Jeremy Rood.

The flames and the threat of a collapsing tin roof held back fire crews, who were unable to save the long-standing restaurant and grocery.

“It’s an icon,” Rood said. “You hate to see something like this happen to any building, but certainly a building that’s been around for so long and served so many folks over the years.”

The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

Proprietor Kim Maples Worley said she and her staff had stopped serving lunch by 2 p.m. and closed by 3 p.m., leaving only moments before the fire began.

Previously known as Hancock Grocery, the store was built sometime around 1917 along a curve at 8908 Kodak Road in East Knox County.

Worley and her mother, Sandy Maples, took over the operation in 2006, serving breakfast and lunch amid shelves stocked with canned goods, fishing tackle and personal sundries, along with fresh milk from the nearby Cruze Dairy Farm in the cooler.

The lunch menu changed daily and regulars knew to arrive early before the specials ran out — particularly the pork chops.

“We wanted it to be like home. That’s what it was to us — home,” Worley said.