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All of these articles can be found in previous editions of The Troy Messenger.  Stay tuned for more.  Dianne Smith is the President of the Pike County Historical, Genealogical and Preservation Society.

We want something that would stand out, something that would be remembered.”

Miss Blossom’s, the name chosen for Troy’s newest restaurant, certainly fits the requirements laid out for it.

Owned by cousins, Susan Gibson Rainey and Charlotte Gibson Smith, Miss Blossom’s will be open for business soon.

But the name is not the only unusual feature about this fine restaurant.  For example, not many restaurants are located in read and white one-room school houses, Miss Blossom’s is.

Located on the Elba Highway, two miles from By Pass 231, Miss Blossom’s will serve its customers in a building that has served not only as a school but as a church and as a home as well.

“When we began our search for a location, we wanted an old building of any kind,” Charlotte Smith said.  “We found the old school house and worked from there.”

     Miss Blossom’s is sure to remind many people of “the little red school house of the ‘good old days’.”

Framed between huge oak trees with Spanish moss, the familiar red and white building is equipped with a tin roof and a school bell.

School benches decorate the lawn and four white wicker rockers are on the porch.

Inside the building has white walls and varnished floors.  A potbellied stove and a play piano decorate the main dining room.  Pictures of George Washington, and the alphabet, essential in any room are on the walls.

Other important elements of the “school house atmosphere” are a patchwork table cloths, muslin curtains, antique musical instruments, a blackboard and even a teacher’s desk which serves as a salad bar.  Waiters in brasserie aprons complete the picture.

But usually it is the menu, not the furniture of a restaurant that is its most important feature.  At Miss Blossom’s, steak, chicken, shrimp, oysters Bienville, beef ribs, potatoes, broccoli soufflé and corn on the cob are just a few of the dishes to be available—all at prices “in a medium range.”

     “A person can serve good food without it being too expensive,” Charlotte Smith explained.

The opening of Miss Blossom’s is a “dream come true” for its two owners.  Charlotte Smith and Susan Rainey former waitresses and caterers for luncheons and cocktail parties, started working toward their “dream” two year ago.

After months of planning and mountains of paperwork, they formed the Blossom Corporation.  Next they purchased the hundred-year-old school house from the Bradley estate of Troy.

“It is very exciting to be able to fulfill our creative desires on our own and to be a working part of the community, “ they said.