Tom Watson writes:


The "new building" had been built in the 1920's and was new only in
relation to the "old building" which was really little more than a
barn that had been erected about the same time that George Washington
had walked his troops on up the road to Valley Forge.

I grew up in the 1980s. We had a hardware store very similiar to this
locally. It was built in the early 1900s and had worn out wooden floors.
Merchandise was crammed into every corner and spilled out into the aisles.

The fire marshall finally told the owner he had to renovate or close the
store. The owner spent at least $500,000 on a new building right behind
the old one. The new store opened in 1988 and the old store was razed to
finish the parking lot. It is much easier to find stuff in the new store,
but the character just isn't the same.

Ironically, the city now is redeveloping the area and will be building the
owner another new store 1/3 mile up the road. I don't understand why
cities spend millions of taxpayer dollars to raze perfectly good
businesses and relocate them.

Brian Elfert