Port Royal’s earliest stores dated to the late 1790s, and many were taverns and inns. Commerce brought by the Great Western Road, which passed through the town, allowed stores to thrive for many years. At various times Port Royal had silversmiths, blacksmiths, grocers, doctors, mills, drygoods stores, cabinet and furniture makers, tailors, shoemakers, and even a silk mill in the 1840s. The area where the main street once ran through Port Royal was lined with stores on both sides for several hundred yards. Bertha Bourne stood on the front porch of her store around 1930, and that store stood for many decades where the current highway bridge begins. The Mallory Way Station served as a tavern and stagecoach inn from at least 1836 until the late 19th century, later became a grocery store, and then a private residence in the 20th century; the Port Royal ferry was also operated by whoever owned that building, whose foundation is still there.