Stepping in Style with Hamilton's Shoes, circa 2002

An article written in about 2002

Stepping in Style 

Take a good look at this old photo of Hamilton’s Shoe Store.  The name of the building proudly adorns a rooftop attachment with ornate splendor. It‘s easy to envision the removal of that adornment either when it became unstable or when the building name was changed but what about the steps? That building doesn’t have stairs now. What happened? Did the level of the street change?  Are there old steps buried under the sidewalks? Nope, nothing as easy as that.

The original Baldwin Block Building, now the Ebenezer Oil Building, had stores on the first level and a door leading to the upper level theater with a stage and auditorium seating. The back of the building came down decades ago and the rest was transformed into offices. The corner store was a bank, then the Newhouse Shoe Store, and finally Hamilton’s. 

Early in the 1900s, theatergoers and customers used the stairs but those stairs also attracted unemployed people who would sit and while away the time, interfering with foot traffic. The landlord responded to the merchants’ needs by bringing their floors to street level. Evidence is behind the basement door at Hamilton’s. Like a flood water level recorded for posterity, this wall sports white paint showing where the first floor level once was and no paint where the wall was originally in the basement.

Workers detached the floor from the building, cut the steel supports in the basement and lowered the floor. The ceilings and windows were once reasonably placed but, with the floor lowered several inches, the windows are now so high that anyone would need a ladder to look out. A drop ceiling was installed but there’s plenty of headroom left.

Amazingly, all the work was done around scheduled business. Stores didn’t close for even one day because of the reconstruction. At Hamilton’s, the customer was always right and the store was always open. Now, that’s extreme service and a legacy that Rich Shear tries to live up to.

Rich followed his father into the business.  Dick Shear could have gone to Colgate or Alfred U with a free ride courtesy of his football skills but his dad died when there were still two kids at home so Dick took a job at what he called the Newhouse Shoehouse to help support his younger brother and mother.  The elder Mrs. Shear was a hard-working, German  person who was up and baking long before most others in Wellsville stirred.  Every morning by six, she had a smile on her face and finished pies on their way to Scoville Brown Grocery.   

In 1928, Newhouse sold the shoe business to William Hamilton for $2,200.  Mr. Hamilton changed the name of the store but kept young Dick Shear.  Dick was the people-person at Hamilton’s and William provided the capital.  Dick Shear wore out shoe leather and treads as he learned and changed the business.

Bach then, the local businesses bustled.  In the ‘30s, ‘40s, ‘50s and even into the early ‘60s, people bought locally.  Yes, cars became common over those decades but traveling to purchase things didn’t. The Sears catalog was full of great stuff but if you really wanted shoes that fit, you went to a pro.  At almost every shoe store, both feet were always carefully measured and, for several years, an x-ray machine was used to give the inside picture of the fit. 

During the time that he was in charge of making sure that people had comfortable shoes, Dick Shear developed a method of creating felt pads to customize shoes.  He knew that people don’t have perfectly matched feet and that most people needed modifications glued into one shoe or the other.  He also learned to use a set of antique stretchers to customize shoes.  It’s uncommon to find stretchers like these in use anymore.  The stretchers can help get a new pair of shoes “broken in,”  preventing blisters and adding comfort.  Rich Shear sees the stretchers and the custom-fit pads as components of a customer-service ideal that he strives for. 

Dick Shear brought service to his customers even if they didn’t come to the store.  He would send out notices of his schedule and then take a car full of shoes to a room at the Sherwood Hotel in Hornell, the Olean House, or hotels in Coudersport or Smethport.  During the day, people tried on what he had and if they needed a larger or smaller size or a different color, they came back in the late afternoon when someone from the store brought out the needed items.  The service, offered twice a year for over twenty years, faded away as hotels closed and customers became more mobile.

Rich has worked at Hamilton’s since 1967 when he started learning to make pads and fit shoes while still in college.  Following his Dad’s example on a smaller scale, Rich, when asked, takes shoes to customers at nursing homes.  He also has fourteen drawers full of catalogs in the back of the store so, if a customer doesn’t find the right footwear in one the 3,000 shoeboxes covering the walls, Rich will custom order the right shoe. 

Footwear has changed over the decades.  One big thing is that it is harder now to predict how a shoe will fit.  Shoes were made in the United States when Rich started (women’s shoes in St. Louis and men’s throughout New England) and there were standards – a size six was pretty much the same for any company. 

Now shoes are made in Asia and South America with sizing that varies from manufacturer to manufacturer.  The variety in sizing makes measuring, fitting and modifying important, but hard to find, services.

There’s been a big shift in style.  Years ago, many shoes were ordered in narrow sizes.  “We would order women’s dress shoes in quadruple A.  Have feet changed in one generation?  No.  Women just jammed their feet into these narrow things.  They didn’t ruin their feet but they were uncomfortable for years.  Now there is more acceptance of the rounded-toe, Euro Style and more concern for comfort.”

Another shift is that athletic wear, once a small section in the store, now  commands nearly a full wall.  Rich offers his experience as a runner to help other athletes.  He considers the person’s biokinetics, analyzing how the runner moves and helping to select the best shoe to address a problem.

Hamilton’s has always tried to provide mid to high quality footwear from a variety of manufacturers while giving attentive service to their clients.  Early in our lives as Wellsville residents, my husband gave Hamilton’s a try.  City and mall shoe stores often told him that they didn’t carry his size but Hamilton’s made special orders.  

Among Rick Hardman's favorite small town memories is the day that he was pumping gas when someone yelled out to him, “Hey, Rick, your shoes are in!”  

Events like that makes small towns feel like home.  Hamilton’s has been a part of this small town for 74 years.

 

Carter Hardware

  This article was written several years ago and printed in the Wellsville Daily Reporter

                                                Carter Hardware

 The bell rang when Dean Graves walked into the store and Kate asked him if he wanted his repaired window screen.  Dean, who’s been a friend and a customer since he was a boy, talked as she went to get it.  “Everything’s here.  If you need a weird little part, they have it and if they don’t, they’ll get it for you.” 

             That “can do, can find, can fix” reputation is as solid as the stone foundation that attaches Carter’s Hardware to 130 North Main.  In the horse and buggy days, circa 1900, A. E. Brandon opened the store to offer service to people and that’s what people continue to find.  Another customer, Dick Butler said, “If I can’t find what I need anywhere else, I come here.”

         My family discovered Carter’s when we moved to Wellsville in 1975.  Our neighbor at the time, Charles Hyde, was at the end of his career there.  He started after being in the 23rd Engineering Corps during World War I and over a period of nearly sixty years, some worked in tandem with John Boyd, Charles learned the purpose for every item tucked in corners and attics of the store owned, then, by Roy Carter. 

         When Roy Carter owned the store and hired Charles in the 20’s, there were no farm supply stores and lumber stores sold only lumber.  For other construction supplies, and to have things repaired, people went to a hardware store.  Carter’s was in one building then, selling wood and gas stoves, farm supplies, horse blankets and collars.  Upstairs, a hoist brought materials to the area where awnings were made to order and, in the basement, were machines for other kinds of custom work.  

    Nails came to the store in one hundred pound kegs and were put into bins under the main counter.  The counter now holds a computer instead of a cash register but the original scale is still there and ready to use, if you’d like to buy a few pounds of nails.

             Those hundred pound kegs were abandoned in favor of fifty-pound cardboard boxes years ago but some of the old kegs with their odd and out-of-demand nails are still in the back, just in case.

            That’s what makes Carter’s such a great place.  All kinds of gadgets are kept around and someone in the store knows what and where they are.  My husband, Rick, has gone searching high and low for things to be told that they aren’t made anymore but, when he comes to his senses and stops at Carter’s, they ask, “Would you like that in aluminum, brass or stainless steel?”

     In the seventies, small kitchen appliances could be brought to Carter’s for repair.  Now people usually throw small appliances away and buy new ones but the wall in the back room is covered with rubber belts and small engine parts.  The paint mixer takes up one corner while the workbench along the wall is the place for repairing vacuum cleaners, lawnmowers and snow blowers or for eating lunch.  On the wall, a list of prices for service can make a person gasp, but only because they are such reasonable numbers.  

     The pipe cutter that Mr. Brandon bought about a hundred years ago is still in service in the basement.  In addition to having pipes cut or threaded, customers can have glass cut, window screens repaired, any kind of saw or cutting blade sharpened and stove pipe crimped on the spot. 

             After Lee Guilford bought Carter’s in the 70’s, he extended the space, spreading the business into the second building, formerly a Sears store.  This allowed expansion of the selection of guns, swords and other sport equipment.

     Lee taught his sons, Jeff and Clark, the business the old fashioned way, by having them work in his store when they were kids.  A photo of young Jeff, surrounded by hardware, hangs between scenes of the store as Charles Hyde knew it.  Jeff took over the operation of the store with Clark several years a go but now he runs it with his younger brother, Zack.  They continued to offer merchandise, advice and repairs.

                 Taking the tradition into another generation, Kate Aronson works in the store part time.  She says there isn’t much of a choice about where you work when your Dad owns a store but that it’s really fun.  She has gained useful knowledge and skills.  She knows what to do with all the machines in the basement and most of the stuff upstairs, too. 

    And, may I stress, there is a lot of stuff.  Just standing on the foot-worn wooden floor at the front door, one can see keys, light fixtures, fans, ant traps, drills, dry wall tools, toy Radio Flyers in different scales, knives, Goop, and plastic floor covers sold by the yard.  A walk down any aisle reveals the reason why Jeff has so many catalogs in his office and why people are so often able to leave the store with just what they were looking for. 

     “I don’t know what it’s called but…” was the start of a customer’s inquiry that, with plenty of hand gesturing, tried to identify an object by its purpose.  In another store, an observer would think that this customer would leave empty handed but here she was patiently heard and led down the correct aisle, just as she expected.

                 Carter’s is open during the week from eight to six and until five on Saturday.  While someone fixes your broken window screen or sharpens your scissors or chain saw, you can find the right screw, nail, bolt or spring for your project, get a new apple peeling machine, select some cookie cutters, have your paint color blended, pick out a fishing pole or get some keys made. 

     Like Dean says, “Carter’s is a great place!”

 

KaBOOM! It's music time.

WELLSVILLE: The Fassett Greenspace Project has grown from phase one, the garden, toward phase 2, the teaching/play area with a generous grant from KaBOOM!.

            KaBoom isn’t a noise or a shout, it’s an idea that promotes play and for Wellsville it’s a set of 6 sculptural musical instruments to be permanently installed at the Fassett Greenspace Project. KaBOOM! and the Ralph C Wilson, Jr. Foundation awarded Built To Play funds to Wellsville’s amazing new community space for the purchase of the instruments.

Phase 1, the garden,
Photo by Elaine Hardman

            Built to Play is funding several discovery areas throughout Southeast Michigan and Western New York with the hope of inspiring active, creative, outdoor free play for children. Built to Play called for grant proposals for projects that would integrate play into everyday life in unexpected places and found the formerly empty lot at Fassett and Main Street with its life-sustaining garden and planed performance space a perfect fit. The grant proposal, written by Art for Rural America president, Cassandra Bull with an assist from Andrew Harris, brings $20,000, the cost of the instruments.

Aria, one of the six sculptural instrument
 to be installed at Fassett Greenspace Project.
Photo courtesy of Freenote Harmony Park.

            Why get instruments? Art for Rural America, the umbrella organization that is transforming the Fassett lot into a place for healthy living, hopes to have a positive impact on the social sustainability of the Wellsville community. AFRA sees music as a cultural phenomenon that builds community by strengthening relationships between people of diverse backgrounds. These outdoor instruments will invite a wide audience, encourage group play, stimulate improvisation, and allow for physical activity for families.

Contrabas Chimes, one of the six sculptural instrument
 to be installed at Fassett Greenspace Project. Photo courtesy of Freenote Harmony Park.

            AFRA’s President, Cassandra Bull, said, “Music is a universal language that brings benefits to listeners and creators. These sculptural instruments offer an environment for physical and cooperative play, creative expression, and emotional regeneration.”

            To learn more about the Fassett Greenspace Project go to ArtForRuralAmerica.org and choose Fassett Greenspace or find us on Facebook. To donate toward the installation of the instruments, send checks made out to Fassett Greenspace Project to AFRA, 130 North Main Street, Wellsville, NY 14895.

The Manta Ray, one of the six sculptural instrument
 to be installed at Fassett Greenspace Project.
Photo courtesy of Freenote Harmony Park.

            AFRA board members, including Bull, Harris, Andy Glanzman and Elaine Hardman are available to speak to your community organization. Contact us at ArtForRuralAmerica@Gmail.com or 585-808-0385. Volunteers with gardening knowledge willing to weed or water are always appreciated.   

June Update on Fassett Greenspace Project

Green spaces, flower beds
White paths between flower beds
brown covered seating area
gray performance space
black circle, fountain

WELLSVILLE: There’s activity on the corner of Main and Fassett in Wellsville. People who haven’t been in Wellsville in a while will notice that something looks different but even people who walk past weekly will register a change.  So, what is going on?

Lauryn Sherwood

            The corner was a site of community business in the early 1800s when Wellsville town meetings were held there. Decades of commerce took place there until interrupted in 1867 when fire leveled the wood framed buildings of Wellsville’s Main Street. Isaac Fassett announced he would build a solid hotel on that corner with brick exterior walls and thick interior firewalls. He didn’t intend to have Fassett House tumble down in any fire. He wanted it to endure and endure it did from 1870 until 2005.

Andy Glanzman

            The lot was emptied when Isaac Fassett’s dream was torn down (fire and water damage were too expensive to repair) and now the lot is owned by Andy Glanzman who has given it to create a dynamic new type of community center.

            On weekends, you can find Glanzman, Andrew Harris, Cassandra Bull, Jim Lemkin as well as other community members, business owners,  high school students, and this reporter shoveling rock, moving blocks, pounding, gluing and building to make the Fassett Greenspace Project.

            Roughly, the project will include a labyrinth of raised beds with a water fountain in the center. Plantings aren’t fully defined yet but will involve a mix of perennial flowers and edible plants along with annual vegetables. On the side furthest from the street there will be a covered seating area for people to enjoy outdoor performances and classes in art, gardening, exercise and more.

Layer 2 on the second ring.

            Grant applications are in progress to get funding to pave the walkways both to preserve the labyrinth on this sloped corner and to make it wheel chair and stroller accessible. Another grant seeks funds to purchase outdoor musical instruments.

            On Saturday, some high school students spent time working toward their community service requirements. Lauryn Sherwood put in a few hundred plastic pins. She plans to study nursing after graduation, a career area that became of interest to her because of the TV series Gray’s Anatomy.    

Jacob Beirman and Nick  Lakatosh

            Nick Lakatosh has done community service for the SPCA and at the fire hall but spent his Saturday morning moving several hundred pounds of blocks and caps at the Fassett Greenspace. He worked with Jacob Beirman and Isaiah Plank to move the blocks and while there is a wheel barrow to help, it is no easy task to move anything over a deep layer of loose stones. Other volunteers built a sort of wood pallet-road but the last several feet have to be carried by hand.  

            Isaiah Plank has done some community service with the MS Walk, the Lions Club Cleanup and the Maker’s Fair prior to helping at the garden. After he graduates he hopes to study at Alfred State in Wellsville to become a gourmet cook. Isaiah thinks that people feel good when they help their community. Jacob Beirman thinks the Greenspace will be great when it’s finished.  He spent some of his other community service time at the SPCA and at the United Way golf tournament.

Roxanne Blouvet

            Roxanne Blouvet has lived in Wellsville off and on for about 30 years. She has helped at 3 work sessions at the garden after seeing a post about it on Instagram. She does a lot of community service for friends, neighbors and at Arbor Development where she brings meals on holidays. Blouvet said, “This is a great idea for the community and will bring beauty downtown. It’s great to share the work together and I hope other people will come to help.”

Jim Lemkin and Cassandra Bull

            Jim Lemkin drives over from Black Creek to help in part because of the influencer of his neighbor, Cassandra Bull, president of Art for Rural America, the parent organization that is building the garden. It wasn’t just being neighborly though. Jim realized right off the potential that the Fasssett Greenspace has for Wellsville saying, “I’m honored to be a small participant in this amazing project. I believe that people will travel great distances to experience what will become a majestic destination.”

Andy Glanzman and Isaiah Plank

            The project is huge and needs help - physical and financial - to move it toward that majestic goal. Tax deductable donations are welcome. Send checks made out to Fassett Greenspace and mailed to AFRA , 130 North Main Street, Wellsville 14895. Feel free to stop and talk with anyone working there if you pass by.

            To learn more about the project, go to www.ArtForRuralAmerica.com or to Fassett Greenspace Project on Facebook. You can contact board members at either site. Occasionally you may find a note on the Facebook page announcing work times when you could stop by and earn the right to say, “Hey, I helped build that!"

Box: It takes a village of workers and a bank of funding to create such an ambitious project.

Some donations to date include:

Grant Awards.

The Garman Family Foundation through the Community Foundation of Greater Buffalo - $15,667

 The Allegany County Area Foundation - $750

Donations

·         ​ALCO Federal Credit Union - $1,000

·         Steuben Trust Company - $1,000

·         L C Whitford & Company, Inc. - $2,000

·         The Searle Family Estate - $400

·         Wellsville Citizens for Responsible Development - $500

·         Patricia Ann Kuzman - $95

·         Sheila Kalkbrenner - ongoing 

·         Allegany Arts Association - $100

·         Giant Food Mart - $1,000

In-Kind Donations

·         Kevin LaForge Disposal 

·         JR. Green Trucking Company

·         The Village of Wellsville

·         Tim Shea

·         Lehman's nursery

·         East wind Landscaping Nursery

·         Southern Tier Concrete Products, Inc. 

·         Nate Piscitelli

·         Anna Joyce

·          

Volunteer Support

·         Alfred State College Department of Heavy Equipment with Vinny Grottanelli

·         Alfred State Department of Masonry with Steve Richard

Preparing to Grow a Community

Photo provided by Steuben Trust

Jim Knapp, SVP-Retail Sales Manager, Marcella Bledsoe, VP and Manager

WELLSVILLE: Starting 2018 with proof of generosity and community spirit, Steuben Trust Bank gave a $1,000 boost to Allegany County’s Fassett Green Space Project in Wellsville. Marcella Bledsoe, VP and Manager in Wellsville, said, “Steuben Trust is delighted to support the redevelopment of South Main Street in Wellsville.”

                That spot on South Main was a different place in 1870 when Isaac Fassett built his grand hotel there on a plot of land that had already seen 4 decades of commerce and was the site of some of Wellsville’s early town meetings. The Fassett house was meant to last, architecturally demanding to endure, proclaiming those demands with brick exterior walls encasing thick interior firewalls. Isaac Fassett didn’t intend to allow a repeat of the 1867 fire that devastated Wellsville’s Main Street. Having survived for over 130 years, the building was brought down in 2005 by leaky water pipes and, despite the 1870 efforts, a fire

                In the first centuries of the Village of Wellsville, community spaces were located inside of structures. In our time with this project, the community will be invited to an open space with crops, a living maze, and people sitting, talking and feeling at home.

                This project began as a community garden a few years ago but a garden without water is a Sisyphean struggle. There were a few crops planted in those early years but the project needed on site water, more people to share the effort, and funds. Once it was taken on by Art For Rural America (AFRA) all those things started lining up. Rescuing the project from its persistent and desperate thirst, K. S. LaForge installed water service and the Village of Wellsville pledged free water to the site.

                Cassandra Bull is president of AFRA and with Andrew Harris and Andy Glanzman makes up the energizing core of AFRA. Harris had the original idea for the community food garden, a shared growing space for crops and acted as water carrier for flowers, rhubarb, garlic and more catching the attention of AFRA. AFRA has changed the focus and now all board members are focused on creating a “greenspace” with a garden and with installations such as a meditation labyrinth, a mini theater area, and annual gardens to create a space that would be open to and welcoming of social gatherings and educational programming.

                At this point, support for the project has been voiced by WIC, the Wellsville Creative Arts Center, Cornell Cooperative Extension, Wellsville Central School, Wellsville YMCA, Total Senior Care, ASC, the Wellsville Chamber, Immaculate Conception School and the Village of Wellsville. In addition to today’s donation from Steuben Trust Bank, other sizable donations have been made or pledged by Alco Federal Credit Union. K. S. LaForge Disposal, Allegany County Area Foundation, the Wellsville Rotary, Patricia Ann Kuzma, The Searle Family Estate and the Garman Family Foundation through the Community Foundation of Greater Buffalo.

                More donations are needed for construction (slated to begin in April), operation and the unpredictable, surprise expenses that are part of any large project. Donations of any size can be made online at www.youcaring.com/thefassettgreenspace where more information is posted. Another source of information is on Facebook at The Fassett Greenspace. If you prefer paper over the internet, checks may be made out out to Art for Rural America ( or just AFRA Greenspace) and mailed to 130 North Main Street, Wellsville, NY 14895.

                 AFRA Board members are available to attend your group's meeting to answer questions and provide information. The Allegany Arts Association will host a presentation about the Fassett Greenspace Project at their January meeting. If your organization is willing to host a representative and learn more about the project, contact them through ArtForRualAmerica@gmail.com or at 585-808-0385. If you are willing to add some time and muscle to make this happen, get your work gloves ready and give us a call.

----http://www.wellsvilledaily.com/news/20180527/stronga-giant-donation-to-fassett-greenspace-projectstrong