BATH — In the state’s oldest town, a town of firsts — first town, first port — a few buildings along South Main Street give visitors a peek into Bath’s commercial past. Most prevalent among them is the Swindell Cash Store, a brick landmark built in 1905 and lovingly restored a century later by Weinstein Friedlein Architects, creating a space that offers both commercial and residential space.

“This is the only mixed-use building in Bath,” said Maria Wilson, broker/owner of Coldwell Banker Coastal Rivers Realty in Washington.

It stands out: a stately structure of warm-toned brick and many windows, the building draws plenty of notice from passers-by.

“It’s probably one of the things that people notice most when they come to Bath — everyone wants to know what’s going on with the old store,” Wilson said.

At 7,100 square feet, Swindell Cash Store is immense. Downstairs, a wall of windows, many of them original, faces Main Street, allowing light to pour into a single room that could be used for many commercial purposes.

“I envision this as a restaurant, or it would make a great artists’ center,” Wilson said of the large, open space that’s lined with columns and new wood floors reclaimed for reuse from other historic properties.

Upstairs, historic meets modern day. Tucked around the back of the building, an exterior staircase leads to two loft-like apartments, each a mirror image of the other. There are no walls in these apartments. Instead of individual rooms, each is divided by partial walls that separate a living area and kitchen from an office area/den from a bedroom that looks out over the street and one of Bath’s other historic properties, the Palmer Marsh House.

“I think it has kind of a little more of a cosmopolitan vibe now,” Wilson said of the renovation.

Bamboo floors grace kitchen and bathroom; wide, pine planking, the rest of the apartment. Overhead are tall, wood plank ceilings studded with skylights, letting in more light along the interior walls, though lack of light is no issue — wide two-over-two windows along the front and sides of the building let in plenty, as does the wall of western-facing windows and exterior glass door. Outside, a deck meant for sunset offers views of Bath Creek.

It’s the perfect mix of small town and urban design — a place to live and work.

And, of course, it has history.

It was a center of commerce and a center for the community; a voting precinct and the place to pick up a T-bone steak. The building was constructed as the T.A. Brooks General Store; later Eura V. Swindell became Brooks’ partner, then took over when Brooks retired in 1938.

“At Swindell’s Cash Store, one could buy anything from cookies to caskets — legend has it, even a driver’s license could be purchased for a quarter,” reads a brochure about the building.

But in 1983, Swindell’s son Jack, who inherited the business in 1959, went “out to lunch” and simply never came back. Polly Swindell Sinclair later donated the building to Preservation North Carolina to ensure its preservation, and Ken Freidlein stepped in to make it happen.

Between 2005 and 2010, Swindell Cash Store underwent a massive renovation: new roofing, new underground electrical service, new plumbing, new kitchens, baths and fixtures, new HVAC and sealed crawl space. What wasn’t restored was replaced with materials appropriate to the rural general store.

“He used a lot of reclaimed materials,” Wilson said.

Today, Swindell Cash Store is an opportunity for some enterprising person. For sale for $565,000, the combination of commercial and residential, of historic and modern, of urban and coastal living on the creek, Swindell Cash Store is a truly unique property.