Where in Mississippi is ... Ripley? Famous for its long-running flea market, this northeast Mississippi city is touting its downtown, too.

If some places are celebrated for a signature product--like Hershey and its chocolate, Napa and its wines--Ripley, Mississippi, can claim fame for selling just about everything under the sun.

Filling the shacks and stalls at its First Monday Trade Days is a delightfully disjointed collection of goats, game birds, shrubs, socks, T-shirts, auto parts, old rusty tools and more.

"If you're looking for a brass cap for one of those antique glass lanterns, you'll find it there," says Duane Bullard, a local historian and president of the Tippah County Development Foundation.

The weekend event draws some 50,000 people each month, filling hotels and motels as far as New Albany, while vendors spend the night in tents and RVs on the grounds or at the Tippah County Lake campground. While the flea market is the best-known attraction in this town of 6,000, recent investments, renovations, and improvements are giving visitors reasons to come and visit the downtown area, too.

Charles Kirk admits that wasn't really the goal when he and his wife, Joy, began renovating what was, by all accounts, the "ugliest building in town"--an old blacksmith shop built in 1910, now completely remodeled as their Capansky's Restaurant and Marketplace.

In the beginning, the couple, owners of furniture-manufacturing company Kirkwood USA Inc., aimed simply to set up a factory outlet. But one thing lead to another.

After purchasing the building in the fall of 2005, the Kirks stripped out everything but the walls and the floor joists. They replaced the original floor upstairs with antique wood planks from an old gymnasium in Potts Camp and created a decor throughout that comfortably blends the historic and the modern.

Meanwhile, the concept for their business grew to include a gift shop, gourmet coffee bar, and marble-slab ice cream parlor. Upstairs, the restaurant features a menu of specialty sandwiches, salads, and gourmet pizza.

The 7,200-square-foot establishment opened last fall and is named for Kirk's late stepfather, Robert "Cap" Capansky. "We are hoping our renovation will be a catalyst for others," Kirk says.

As the town looks forward to more historic preservation, it is looking back, too. Ripley's history dates to its incorporation in 1837 as the county seat of Tippah County. The town was named for General Eleazor Wheelock Ripley, a Congressional Medal holder and War of 1812 hero.

Although Ripley's courthouse was burned by federal troops during the War Between the States, many of its records were preserved and hidden for more than two years until the war's end. Time, war, and fire ensured that none of the town square's original frame buildings have survived. Ripley's last great fire destroyed the south side of the square in 1903. The present courthouse was built in 1970.

In recent years, the process of reviving downtown through historic preservation began with the purchase of Ripley's old U.S. Post Office by Dixie-Net, a homegrown business in the voice and data service industry.

The House of Seven Gables, once standing at this site, was built by Col. William C. Falkner--the author's great-grandfather--and was razed in 1935 to make room for the post office. A local couple, Ma and Pa Tate, bought the house and took it apart piece-by-piece. They used the materials to build a new house next door, which later served as the town's hospital and clinic. Both the post office and the old clinic were restored in 200001 and now house Dixie-Net's corporate headquarters and technical facilities.

The Ripley Main Street Association was established in 2001. Led by director Allison Windham and committed volunteers, it holds frequent festivals downtown and has also secured grant money for additional renovations.

Work is wrapping up on Ripley's New Dixie Theatre, a $266,000 project to restore a former grocery store building to its previous role as a community playhouse. On the horizon is another project to turn the old Tippah County Jail into a community archives center. The Main Street Association received a $115,000 Community Heritage Preservation Grant toward the project from the Mississippi Department of Archives and History and is now in the process of preparing construction documents. Construction may begin as early as this fall.

The city of Ripley passed a historic preservation ordinance in 2003, and has since established a historic district stretching out from downtown for more than fifty blocks into the town's pecan-shaded historic neighborhoods.

The city's investments in improving the sidewalks, lighting, and landscaping around the square area helped to inspire more private investments, says Mary Jane Brinkley, owner of Grape Vine Village gift shop on the square and one of the original Ripley Main Street Association board members. "I think it takes a lot of people being motivated," she says. "Lately I have just seen Ripley grow, grow, grow."

Locals point to the recent debut of the Inn on the Square, an elegantly modern downtown hotel featuring three guest suites and a private loft above. Owned by Joel and Donna Bennett, it is managed by Bonnie Smith whose personal touches include greeting guests with a carton of milk and a slice of her mother's famous caramel cake.

As Ripley continues to raise its profile, one of its goals is to highlight its ties to nearby New Albany and Oxford--all three places are connected by William Faulkner's family history. The Nobel Prize-winning author who changed the spelling of his last name to Faulkner was born in New Albany and spent most of his life in Oxford. But his great-grandfather, the first Mississippi Falkner, was a prominent citizen of Ripley.

Arriving in Ripley in the early 1840s, William C. Falkner served as a colonel in the War Between the States. Back home, he owned and operated the Ripley Railroad and also wrote a best-selling novel, The White Rose of Memphis.

One Falkner attraction in Ripley is the former R.J. Thurmond office, now Renfrow's Cafe, where the colonel was shot and killed by his former business partner, R.J. "Dick" Thurmond. In the Ripley Cemetery, a 22-foot marble statue of Falkner depicts the colonel in a frock coat and vest, with his left hand tucked into his pocket and his right hand--missing parts of three fingers--extended forward. According to legend, one of Thurmond's relatives shot off part of the statue's hand after a night of heavy drinking.

The colonel's great-grandson, William Faulkner, may have alluded to the monument in his novel "Sartoris" when describing Col. John Sartoris's grave: "He stood on a stone pedestal, in his frock coat and bareheaded, one leg slightly advanced."

Falkner family photographs and scrapbooks, as well as first editions of the colonel's books, are housed in the Ripley Public Library. The town held its first Faulkner Heritage Festival in 2006 and plans to make it an annual event as part of the regional initiative to create a William Faulkner Heritage Corridor.

With greater attention to the Faulkner connection, coupled with historic preservation efforts and the perennial crowd draw of First Monday Trade Days, Ripley residents are enthusiastic about sharing what their city has to offer.

"We're an untold secret," says Bullard.

IF YOU GO

First Monday Trade Days

Mississippi's largest and the nation's oldest continuously operated flea market; held the Saturday and Sunday before the first Monday of each month; Highway 15 South; 662/837-4051; www.firstmonday.ripley.ms

Square Nights

Featuring live music and shopping on Fridays before "First Monday" weekends, 5-8 p.m.

Inn on the Square

113 N. Main St.; 662/993-9350

Capansky's Restaurant & Marketplace 108 South Commerce Street; 662/993-2277

Renfrow's Cafe

121 N. Main St.; 662/837-3169

Tippah County Historical Museum

Open Tuesday through Saturday, noon to 4 p.m.; 106 N. Siddell St.; 662/512-0099

Faulkner Heritage Festival

A celebration of William Faulkner's Tippah County heritage, sponsored by the Ripley Main Street Association, is set for Nov. 3.

Tippah County Lake

Fishing, camping, picnicking, swimming, boating and weekend skiing await at this lake just north of Ripley. 662/837-9850

STORY AND PHOTOS BY LUCY SCHULTZE