Robbins and McGowin Co., long an Escambia County landmark, was organized in March 1897 through the consolidation of the J. I. Robbins and J. G. McGowin stores, Miss L. A. Cunningham’s millinery, the Blacksher-Miller Commissary, and the J. E. Finlay Co., which had begun in February 1892. J. E. Finlay had learned retailing from his father, W. A. Finlay, owner of Finlay Mercantile in nearby Pollard, Alabama. In 1906, John Edward “Ned” Finlay bought the controlling interest in Robbins and McGowin Co., and soon afterward purchased the two-story Harold Bros. Commissary, also known as the Foshee Building, which became the hardware store. That structure, built about 1878 of handmade bricks shipped from Montgomery, was the first brick building in Brewton, and the first depot stood in front of it, accounting for the recessed parking area. Henry Scott, then fifteen years old, hauled the bricks from the depot in a small wagon for its construction. Robbins and McGowin originally operated with gas lighting but had some of Brewton’s first electric lights installed in 1887, and in 1929 it also introduced the town’s first passenger elevator. During its heyday, it was one of the largest stores of its kind in the Southeast, even selling wild mustangs shipped by rail from Texas. During World War II, the store’s buyers traveled to New York City for the latest fashions. Its catalog, later replaced by the Brewton Trade Record newspaper, served south Alabama, northwest Florida, and eastern Mississippi. For many years, historian and attorney Ed Leigh McMillan had his law offices on the third floor. J. E. Finlay died in 1946, and his sons John David Finlay, Sr., and Norvelle Robertson “Bob” Finlay, followed later by his grandson J. D. Finlay, Jr., continued operating Robbins and McGowin for more than 100 years.