A home for hardware, Masons

By Allison Brophy Champion

Published: August 22, 2008

In this early 1900s photo of the Masonic building at the corner of Davis and East streets, the downstairs is occupied by A.L. Goodloe Jr. & Co., a menswear and dry goods shop.

Pictured, from left are Mrs. Emma Hall Truitt, Archie Goodloe and Mercer Jennings. The names of the man in the doorway and the two boys are unknown.

Soon after, the 106-year-old building opened as Clarke Hardware, a business of the Clarke family of Brandy Station.

Claude Minnich, pictured recenlty in front of the same window, took over as owner in 1980. He attributed the longevity of the business to good service - “you can’t beat it” - and good people.

Add to that a grand selection from floor to ceiling of anything one would need to improve their house or garden and a Radio Flyer line of bikes and wagons, and Clarke Hardware is nostalgia central in a practical way.

“Have any broccoli yet?” called a man driving past the corner store on a recent weekday.

“No, about the middle of the month,” replied Minnich, who’s known, as well, for some of the best garden plants around.

Upstairs, a sign on the building declares, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons still meet.

Any ghosts in that old Masonic Temple?

“We get a little rumbling once in a while,” Minnich said.