The Company Store Plantation Commissary on Porter Lake. by JOHN GRIFFIN What happens to the company store when the company is no more? With a little luck and a lot of sweat, it could be turned into a couple of incredibly citified lofts looking out onto cotton fields and a picturesque lake. And when picturesque also includes some legendary bass and crappie fishing, you've got the setting for some fine country living in East Arkansas just 35 miles southwest of Memphis. The Mississippi had its way with much of this land. The rich Delta soil that spread evenly from the Chickasaw Bluffs of downtown Memphis on the east all the way to Crowley's Ridge on the west was deposited by the river's wanderings between them over eons past. The most visible signs of its changing course today are the oxbow lakes. Horseshoe Lake is a well-known weekend retreat from Memphis, but it's got a shy cousin to the south, Porter Lake, that's rarely visited. It's on Porter Lake that the Bruin family left their plantation's commissary in the 1920s. A white-painted frame building, it's unpretentious with a deep front porch looking out onto the lake. The inside has 10-foot ceilings and lots of windows to admit light and breezes. The ground floor -- once home to sacks of flour and sugar -- is now being converted to two loft-like residences. Each side has about 1,600 square feet, with two bedrooms and two baths. The southern unit has a slightly smaller great room. A fireplace with gas logs anchors the seating end while an island commands the kitchen opposite. Beyond this space -- with its pine floors, ceiling fans, and recessed lights -- is yet another public room that would make a banquet-scaled dining room or a combination dining/seating area. The master bedroom here has a screened porch with plantings from the farm road nearby. Beside the utility room, there's a shared back porch, also screened, that overlooks the backyard. Fencing, landscaping, and double garages with storage for each unit are soon to be completed. The north side is similar in that its great room is also placed to overlook Porter Lake. Here the fireplace is wood-burning and the kitchen has original transom windows stationed high above the cabinetry. This unit delivers all its public space in one larger room. There is another lawn on the north side of the commissary, accessed via two decks, one out of the public great room and another from the rear master suite. The master suite is a spacious room made to feel even larger by its vaulted ceiling. This was possible because the master is placed in an ell off the rear of the building. This room has views both of the lake and the fields behind. Plans also include a dock out onto Porter Lake and a screened gazebo beyond the dock on a point of land surrounded only by water and cypresses. To be so near town, this renovated commissary feels generations removed from city living. Bruin's Plantation Commissary 2 units, each with approximately 1,600 square feet 2 bdrms, 2 baths each; $215,000 Realtor: Whitman and Co., 762-0004 Agent: Ed Whitman