this old store

the current owners never let go of the building's hardware days literally. its inner sanctum revealed a stash of nails, screws, and hinges that your local home depot would covet.







don't even get me started on the cans of paint.








the basement was a graveyard of old rusty machinery.


an automatic retoother


a remington typewriter


this thingamajig


and this doohickey

the current owners were kind enough to give us dibs on anything we wanted, but our search for any old signage or other paraphenalia from the old hardware store was fruitless. dabney and i took a few boxes of wood screws as souvenirs. the paint and the rusty machines, we left behind. oh, but we did find a couple of amazing items in that basement.



according to the owners, the building was built in 1899 and was originally a meat market. we think that this marriage certificate might have belonged to the market owners. the "svobodas" were from bohemia (currently czech republic) and were married in south st. louis in 1880.

here's another picture of mrs. svoboda we came across. we thought we'd just leave this one in the basement to frighten future treasure hunters.


such sweet eyes