Throwback Thursday: This Old Hardware store
With an appreciation for fine architecture, and confidence in the home center business, financial industry veteran Ray Branisel purchased the old Hancock Lumber Company yard in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, back in 1983. He had high hopes for his new company, which he called Old Mill Lumber and Hardware. And his admirable plans included renovating the building from eyesore to colonial masterpiece.
According to a Jan. 30, 1984, article in National Home Center News, the forerunner of HBSDealer, Branisel set about making the transformation of the building, a long-neglected 1852 structure used at various times as a grain mill, harness shop and carriage factory.
“It would have fallen down in three more years if it had been left unattended,” he told National Home Center News, the forerunner of HBSDealer, in a page 3 article under the headline: “Old Mill recycled into 20th cent. home center.”
The recycle included a fundamental shift from lumberyard to home center, as the new owner expanded inventory -- especially hardware, tools and paint -- while investing $300,000 in basic repairs.
Branisel had sales expectations of $800,000 for 1984, and $3 million by 1989, he told NHCN. “The home center industry seemed as recession proof as any,” he said. “I wanted to get into a business that was not faddy.”
Alas, the early success of Old Mill Lumber and Hardware could not be sustained. Today the renovated building serves as the headquarters and showroom of Cleveland Plumbing Supply.
Employees of CPS did not know exactly when the Old Mill store closed. An employee of nearby Chagrin Hardware (another Chagrin Falls architectural gem, which dates back to 1857) told HBSDealer the store didn’t last long past 2000, if it lasted that long.
Branisel died in 2010. His legacy includes an entirely admirable home center venture that continues to benefit the community to this day.
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