Stepping back in time at Jim’s Point Marion Hardware at 126 Penn Street comes with its own creaky footsteps, which you hear as soon as you walk through the door.
The worn wooden floor planks are neatly swept but not refinished. Scuffed and stained they give voice to the many years (the flood of 1985 brought more than a foot of water through the front door) they’ve weathered since they first were laid in 1923.
According to a yellowed newspaper clipping that Travis Bernard Hunt posted on the Point Marion Facebook page, the fire that consumed a block of frame buildings on Penn Street, including Sadler’s Hardware Store, happened on February 16, 1923. The destruction was finally stopped by a firewall on the old Barney’s Theatre building and was considered the worst fire in the history of Point Marion.
But it wasn’t long before Penn Street recovered: a new, more fireproof brick building was built onsite, and Frank Sadler’s hardware store was back in business.
“The owner wanted to redo the floors with new wood, but I said no, this is the way it was when I worked here when I was 15,” Jim Cottrell declared as we strolled around checking out old shelves stocked with new tools, hardware and home repair must-haves, Duluth Clothing shelves more than 100 years old, drawers still labeled in Cottrell’s teenage handwriting. “I like the old-fashioned look.”
This genial plumber slash town council member slash all around community minded kind of guy is carrying on a tradition. Never mind that the building itself is turning 100 this year — there has been a hardware store at this spot on Penn Street ever since relatives of early settler Jacob Sadler opened Sadler’s Hardware in the early hours of the 20th century. This is where farm families got everything they needed, from plumbing supplies to canning jars, aluminum kitchenware to nuts and bolts, chicken crates and tools, tools and more tools. One last wooden crate with the Sadler logo inked on its weathered slats is on display in a front window, along with a spinning wheel and a paint can mixer. Antiques of every era, many collected by latest building owner Robert “Robbie” Delansky, ride shotgun on shelf tops, lending credence to the fixtures of a bygone time when wooden drawers were filled with spare parts and kids like Jim Cottrell got to stock and label those drawers when they came after school to work. Cottrell started here in the early 1980s, a job he returned to off and on for the next 15 years. When his uncle took over the business in 2000, Cottrell came back to help out. When the last owners, who had changed the name to Valley Hardware decided to close in October 2022, those who considered the old hardware store an irreplaceable community hub persuaded Cottrell — who has a plumbing business and knows where to get the best inventory — to take it on.
It didn’t take too much persuading, Cottrell admits with a grin.
Now the old branding is back with Jim’s Point Marion Hardware painted on the marque.
The display counters and floor racks when you walk through the door are where the store’s new lines of locally crafted products are showcased.
The artistry of Casey Williams of CLW Outdoors is evident: hand made lures for fishermen, cunningly crafted turkey calls for hunters, knives recycled from railroad spikes, mower blades, saw blades and stainless steel running boards. Some blades are forged into Damascus steel; no two are exactly alike. Everything is recycled, even the handles, Cottrell pointed out. When I said Wow! I’d like to meet this guy! Cottrell called him up. Williams arrived a short time later from his farm on the ridge above the Dilliner post office on Bobtown Road, Dunkard Township, with a roll of logos he had just printed for the store and a cheerful hello for me.
“My wife makes those bracelets,” Williams noted, pointing into the front case. “She does a whole line of jewelry. Come up to my shop I’ll show you.”
Customers stopped to shop and left with what they needed as we talked. Point Marion Mayor Carl Ables, who owns the construction company Premium Sunrooms came in and joined the discussion about this old store and from there into what is being done to keep Point Marion up and running in this new century. Grants for water lines and road repair were mulled over – after all, this was the mayor and a town council member taking time to describe the progress being made this year and into the future. Plans for the upcoming 44th annual Albert Gallatin Regatta on May 27-28 are in the works and there are still open slots for vendors. Let people know. We’re hoping this year will be the best one yet.
There’s a colorful bulletin on Cottrell’s wall posted by The Converge Center, funded by Faith Assembly of God in Uniontown. The free drop-in center opened last summer in third storefront of Delansky’s building, Cottrell said. “They have free painting classes for kids and the lady running it, Linda Bise, is working with my cousin Wendy on the park committee for the regatta. You ought to meet her. She’s very nice.” The notice spells out in colorful letters the hours of operation – Monday and Wednesday 9am – 2pm with Sunday movies at 6pm. Volunteer coordinator Bise tells me later that the center also offers free tutoring for kids in reading, spelling and math, GED and job search help for adults, play dates for preschoolers and their moms and free coffee for the homeless. “We’re getting to know the community and we want people to know we’re here to stay.”
Cottrell suddenly remembered there was an old advertisement from Frank Sadler’s grand reopening after the fire on the wall of Riverside Diner next door; did I want to see it? Ables offered to go get it and we went outside for a photo of what Delansky’s old building looks like now that Jim’s Point Marion Hardware is part of the downtown scene.
Ables and Cottrell held up the poster for a closer look at what Frank Sadler had to offer at his grand reopening of April 21, 1923 — “Quality brand Aluminum Ware – every piece guaranteed for 20 years.”
It’s easy to imagine the housewives lining up at 1:30pm on opening day, with purses full of pennies and dimes.
The glass on the front door is the community bulletin board. A poster is taped there for this year’s Regatta Car Show on Sunday May 28, with registration by donation between 11am and 1pm. Another sign lets folks know “you can advertise your business on the side of a powerboat for the races – only 10 spots available” for a $250 donation.
I finally said goodbye as school busses rolled through town. Driving past the bridge that would take me back to Greene County I stopped at the public launch to get one last photograph of the Monongahela River that makes Point Marion such a destination town. There I found Michael Edmiston of Morgantown, getting out his heavy-duty rods and big lures to fish for Muskie, an apex predator and a sign of just how healthy the Monongahela River ecosystem has become.
Further down the road on the Pennsylvania side of Cheat Lake Dam is another one of Delansky’s properties – Cheat River Campground, the place to stay after a day of rails to trails, or a sleepover in May when the Albert Gallatin Regatta takes over Point Marion for the Memorial Day weekend. Will the 30 campsites be full that weekend? Check it out on Facebook!
For a moment, standing in the sunny warmth of a day that will be gone with tomorrow’s blustery arrival, it was possible to imagine what the end of May will feel like.
Look out, summer! Point Marion is waiting for you!