Rutledge Hardware Company

About Rutledge Hardware Company

Categories: Home & Garden | Home Repair & Improvement | Hardware & Tools | Furniture | Home & Garden Retailers | Lawn & Garden | Gardening

Status: Rutledge Hardware Company Paul has in a full line of Spring garden seed and plants at his Old Rutledge Hardware store here in Rutledge Georgia. Start your garden now!
Last updated 2010-03-19 17:00:54.901226

Taking a step into the OLD Rutledge Hardware store is like taking a step back in time... Rutledge Hardware has been in continuous operation since the late 1800s in downtown Rutledge. It has all of its original fixtures, rolling ladders from floor to ceiling, even some of its original inventory! Only the fourth owner of record, local resident Paul Jones grew up shopping in this store that he now owns and operates. The 100 year old Rutledge Hardware store sits next door to his wife Pam's shop, the Barn Raising, an antique and gift shop where his custom furniture is displayed along with her many antiques. Paul builds 18th Century Furniture Reproductions in the back warehouse area when he isn't waiting on customers or visiting with them around the old pot belly stove. His pieces include Heart Pine Hunt boards, Linen Press/Entertainment Centers, Corner Cupboards, Trunks, Tables, Beds, etc all done in Milk Paint finishes. They have been featured in the magazine Country Living among others. His furniture creations can be found for sale next door in the Barn Raising and on display in stores up and down the East coast from Georgia to Connecticut. Folks visiting the hardware store enjoy looking through the old double doors into the back warehouse area and watching Paul as he brings his hand-crafted 18th century furniture pieces to life. At Rutledge Hardware Paul sells a full line of hardware along with old fashioned and hard to find household items. He sells wood stoves and cast iron Lodge cookware featuring camp and Dutch ovens, frying pans in all sizes, grills and griddles along with cook tables and tri-pod stands to cook on. He has galvanized tubs in oval and round shapes and many sizes. You'll find Radio Flyer Wagons, Daisy BB Guns, Farm Bells, Milk Paint even screen wire fly swatters! It's a treat to buy marbles right from the jar or seed from the old seed bin, nails from the revolving nail bin and nuts and blots from the wonderful old oak nut and bolt bin. Spring tiime is the best time of year as Rutledge Hardware is about the only place around where you can buy bulk garden seed, weighed up by hand the old fashioned way! Paul sells you as much or as little garden seed as you want along with beautiful garden plants he cares for daily and keeps fresh for you to plant. He sells flowering plants, vegetable plants, onion sets, seed potatoes, you name what you want for your garden and chances are he will have it right there for you! Stepping into the Hardware store is like taking a step back in time. Upon its purchase 11years ago, items were uncovered dating back to the 1850's on the floor to ceiling shelves that line the walls. The shelves can only be reached from the rolling ladders that travel the length of the store on their cast iron wheels and rails. Two years after Paul purchased the Hardware store, the Smithsonian Institute paid him a visit. They left with a rare, one of a kind Cole Boll Weevil Killer still in its original heart pine shipping crate. That is all that has left the store of the original old store inventory. All other items discovered can be viewed in the original glass display shelves. The store was the inspiration for the hardware store in the movie The Legend of Bagger Vance. In fact, many of the antique store items in the movie came from this store. They too can be seen back at home and back in use. The RR runs right through the center of small town Rutledge. You should see the men and boys rush out of the stores to catch a glimpse as it rambles by. It seems little boys (and big ones too) never outgrow their love of trains! Click here to read more about this fantastic old hardware store: http://hometown.aol.com/pjgal2000/myhomepage/business.html And learn more about "Small but Special" Rutledge Georgia here: http://www.smallbutspecial.com/

Tags: hardware, retail, furniture, designers, custom, builders, rutledge,