A New Chapter in the Life of the Hitching Post

Mentone couple purchases vacant lot in hopes of building new memories

Mary Gresham Barr came to Camp DeSoto every summer as a child. As the family car topped the mountain at Mentone, a familiar sight always greeted her, sparking excitement. “I knew I was close to camp when I looked right and saw the Hitching Post,” she recalls. Decades later, that same sense of arrival would shape her family’s story in a way she never expected.

Mary Gresham and her husband, Rick, recently purchased the lot where the Hitching Post once stood. The historic building was lost to fire in February 2023, just as renovations neared completion and new businesses were set to open inside.

The Barrs’ connection to Mentone as a couple began in 1988 when Mary Gresham introduced Rick to the mountaintop community early in their relationship. Mentone quickly became their shared retreat. When they married two years later, they spent their honeymoon in Mentone. At the time, the Hitching Post was one of the few businesses in town.

Rick remembers it vividly: the creak of the floors, the smell of old wood, and the irresistible pull of antiques waiting to be touched, explored, and carried home. “The building was certainly a landmark, and I knew it would tell lots of great stories if it could talk,” he says.

Like so many in the community, the Barrs were devastated when the historic structure burned. “It has hurt to look at the empty lot these past two years,” Mary Gresham says. The loss left not just a bare space, but a gap in the visual and emotional landscape of Mentone.

In the months that followed, they, like others, hoped someone might rebuild something that honored the original. “Little did we know that someone would be us,” Rick says. After lots of discussion and prayers, the couple purchased the vacant lot with a desire to carry the Hitching Post’s spirit into its next chapter.

That chapter is still unwritten, as the Barrs are taking time to research, reflect, and listen before making decisions about the site’s future. What they know for certain is that they do not want to erase what came before. Mary Gresham feels this strongly. For her, the Hitching Post is interwoven with a lifetime of memories: driving through town with her mother, arriving at camp, welcoming friends and kids and dogs to the family’s Mentone home, and helping visitors navigate by the simple instructions “turn right at the blinking light and drive past the Hitching Post.”

The Barrs are gathering memories to help honor the Hitching Post. “We want to celebrate the memories the community has of the Hitching Post as we dream about the future,” says Mary Gresham.

To that end, the Barrs are inviting anyone with photographs, written recollections, or special connections to the Hitching Post to share them. They especially welcome hand-written notes. They hope to collect and display these items inside the new building once it comes to life.

These memories can be mailed to:

Hitching Post
P.O. Box 124
Mentone, Alabama 35984

As the community looks ahead, the Barrs hope Mentone will see this project not simply as a rebuilding effort, but as a continuation of a story. The next iteration of the Hitching Post will take shape in time. For now, they are beginning the process the same way the old building welcomed generations of visitors — with an open door, an open heart, and a shared sense that something meaningful is just around the corner.