The 300 E Main Building: An Intersection of People, Stories, and Communities

“I’ve lived and worked downtown for six years now, so I wanted the bookstore to be somewhere that I felt like part of the neighborhood. And in many ways, it feels like I’m in the pulse of the city and also a diverse intersection of people and stories and communities,” Lauren Smothers, owner of Light Trap Books said. 

A diverse intersection of people, stories and communities. This is the heart behind the building of 300 E Main Street in the center of Downtown Jackson. Housing Turntable Coffee Counter, Light Trap Books, and Green Hawk Records, 300 E Main unifies what everyone loves most: coffee, books, and music. Three essentials to life are woven together into one collaboration, yet are distinct from each other in many ways. Two of the three businesses began at theLOCAL, which encouraged collaboration among new small business owners. When the time came for Anthony Kirk, owner of Turntable, and Lauren Smothers to decide where their businesses would be located after their lease was up, they decided to continue the collaboration beyond theLOCAL.

“Turntable is a destination now, and I’m happy to be a part of it,” Mark Carlton, owner of Green Hawk Records, said. 

Mark joined the group of businesses at 300 E Main because he wanted his products to be housed in an artistic space, and wanted to step back and let the records speak for themselves. It just made sense for his records to be sold in this space that is filled with artists. 

The choice to move into this permanent building gave Turntable the opportunity to produce their own baked goods in-house, hiring the addition of Becca Creasy to the team and introducing the brand “Mixed at Turntable.” Becca is usually in her room baking in the morning and enjoys watching customers come in to join their friends at tables and running into people they know in line. This community they dreamed of is physically being built in front of their eyes. 

“Turntable is committed to innovation and a sense of using the space for more than just coffee and books. Art isn’t just a painting. What Anthony is doing with the coffee is creating art in a beverage, and I’m able to use my creativity to create art out of the pastries,” Becca said. 

Turntable has the tagline of “brewing coffee, brewing community,” so the question was really, “why not” when the opportunity to house three businesses in one historic building was presented. The physical location of this building is in a square of goodness, with other essential businesses right around the counter. They are in a good spot, literally and figuratively. 

“It’s been this sense of if you build it, they will come,” Lauren said. “There is a challenge in a sense of sustaining good things and local businesses, and I think you have to challenge the stereotype of ‘downtown is where I pay my parking ticket.’ But there’s so much more. I think it’s a way of saying ‘yes this is Jackson,’ and I think [this building] is the best expression of Jackson.”

Many have walked into the space Anthony, Lauren, Mark, Becca, and so many others have created and said “this doesn’t feel like Jackson.” And to that Lauren would say that you just haven’t seen this side of Jackson, and maybe this is only a peek into the direction Downtown Jackson is heading. Everyone in this space are visionaries, seeing the potential of what their businesses, this building, and downtown can become. They’re not afraid to take action on their big ideas, and this is the energy a customer experiences when they walk into the building. It’s this welcoming of creativity and of art. It’s a space to have meaningful conversations with a stranger or a neighbor. A space for art to be created or for art to be absorbed. A space where people can build authenticity as they share stories with others or tell the stories of other.

“People can be intimidated by book stores, but I’ve noticed that we provide a low stakes environment to introduce people to the concept of ‘hey, it’s a coffee shop, but there are two other businesses that you can browse’, Lauren said.” It breaks down this initial intimidation from people who might say ‘I’m not really a reader. Vinyls, I don’t know much about that.’ But we are just allowing people the opportunity to browse and it’s really nice to see people walk in and take in the space, realizing it’s this, but it’s also this, this and this.”

300 E Main is a simple layout, yet with so much happening at once. 300 E Main has brought centrality back to main street and allows the people of Jackson to bring this centrality into their own lives as they meet neighbors, roommates, friends, family and other relationships in this space. 

So step inside, take in the large windows, smell the coffee, and breathe.