diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index e53da0c9111..6144d9ea688 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -151,6 +151,8 @@ Release 0.21.0 - Unreleased
    HBASE-1943  Remove AgileJSON; unused
    HBASE-1944  Add a "deferred log flush" attribute to HTD
    HBASE-1945  Remove META and ROOT memcache size bandaid 
+   HBASE-1947  If HBase starts/stops often in less than 24 hours, 
+               you end up with lots of store files
 
   OPTIMIZATIONS
    HBASE-410   [testing] Speed up the test suite
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/HRegion.java b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/HRegion.java
index 1bb88bc65b7..cbb1da2a8b8 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/HRegion.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/HRegion.java
@@ -2501,6 +2501,20 @@ public class HRegion implements HConstants, HeapSize { // , Writable{
     return old;
   }
 
+  /**
+   * Checks every store to see if one has too many
+   * store files
+   * @return true if any store has too many store files
+   */
+  public boolean hasTooManyStoreFiles() {
+    for(Store store : stores.values()) {
+      if(store.hasTooManyStoreFiles()) {
+        return true;
+      }
+    }
+    return false;
+  }
+
   /**
    * Facility for dumping and compacting catalog tables.
    * Only does catalog tables since these are only tables we for sure know
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/HRegionServer.java b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/HRegionServer.java
index 10fcbbf51ae..fc9da0e46b2 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/HRegionServer.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/HRegionServer.java
@@ -1428,10 +1428,12 @@ public class HRegionServer implements HConstants, HRegionInterface,
     if (region == null) {
       try {
         region = instantiateRegion(regionInfo);
-        // Startup a compaction early if one is needed, if region has references.
-        if (region.hasReferences()) {
+        // Startup a compaction early if one is needed, if region has references
+        // or if a store has too many store files
+        if (region.hasReferences() || region.hasTooManyStoreFiles()) {
           this.compactSplitThread.compactionRequested(region,
-            "Region has references on open");
+            region.hasReferences() ? "Region has references on open" :
+                                     "Region has too many store files");
         }
       } catch (Throwable e) {
         Throwable t = cleanup(e,
diff --git a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/Store.java b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/Store.java
index 11b8d989b7d..117e7dd065f 100644
--- a/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/Store.java
+++ b/src/java/org/apache/hadoop/hbase/regionserver/Store.java
@@ -1501,6 +1501,15 @@ public class Store implements HConstants, HeapSize {
       this.lock.readLock().unlock();
     }
   }
+
+  /**
+   * See if there's too much store files in this store
+   * @return true if number of store files is greater than
+   *  the number defined in compactionThreshold
+   */
+  public boolean hasTooManyStoreFiles() {
+    return this.storefiles.size() > this.compactionThreshold;
+  }
   
   public static final long FIXED_OVERHEAD = ClassSize.align(
       ClassSize.OBJECT + (17 * ClassSize.REFERENCE) +