Hardware

Eberbach Hardware, Northeast Corner, Main and Washington, Ca. 1893

 

In 1872 William Herz built 112 West Washington Street on the alley to your left for his popular painting and decorating business

 

Hardware

As Ann Arbor grew, stores that once offered a variety of general merchandise began to specialize in groceries, dry goods, or hardware.  In 1878 Christian Eberbach took over Widenmann and Schuh’s store and turned it into the largest of downtown’s many hardware businesses.  He sold supplies to carpenters, painters, plasterers, and plumbers.  On Saturdays farmers loaded their wagons with cowbells, pitchforks, axes, and machinery parts.  Hardware stores also installed and repaired furnaces, roofs, gutters, and even locks.  Eberbach’s clerk, John Fischer, took over the business in 1892.  As Fischer Hardware, the store moved to Washington Street and Fifth Avenue in 1937 where it lasted into the 1970s.  Downtown’s last hardware store was Schlenker’s on West Liberty.  It specialized in tinware and provided contractors and loyal customers with hard-to-find items.  After more than a century in business, it closed in 1999.

 

When August Hutzel opened his store at 114 South Main Street in 1857, he sold groceries along with glass and painting supplies.  As the city’s gas and water works expanded, many hardware businesses added plumbing and heating equipment.  In the 1880s Hutzel laid miles of cast iron pipes for the city’s first water system.  August’s son Titus, trained as a plumber, sold and installed indoor plumbing, including flush toilets and claw-foot bathtubs.  Right: Hutzel’s colorful parade float, 1898.

 

Sponsored by the Hutzel Company with thanks to Washtenaw County citizens for 150 years of business

Photos courtesy of the Bentley Historical Library

 

Submitted by

Bryan Arnold

@nanowhiskers