Located at the southwest corner of Third Avenue and Kentucky is one of Sturgeon Bay's more prominent lat 19th-century commercial buildings; the Hay Hardware Building. I paid a call last week for an annual eye exam at Door County Eye Associates and always enjoy the tasteful blend of old architecture and a new professional suite replete with modern technology.
Hardware merchants Charles Tifft and John Hay expanded their business in Ahnapee (Algoma) to Sturgeon Bay in the 1880s. Hay moved to Sturgeon Bay to manage the store. The business grew in popularity with Door County farmers supplying everything from heavy agricultural supplies, nails, paint and fencing. As the business grew, Tifft and Hay built the brick building at what was then the primary business corner of downtown at the intersection of Cedar and St. John Streets. It opened in September of 1889.
During the economic depression of 1894 the two men parted company and John Hay assumed full ownership of the Sturgeon Bay business as Hay Hardware. Around the turn of the century a matching brick addition as built at the rear to house a tin shop for the hardware business. Prior to the opening of the Michigan Street Bridge in 1931 this building was downtown Sturgeon Bay's business anchor. It operated continuously as a hardware store for ninety years before closing in 1979.
Constructed of local stone and cream-colored brick the structure is a classic commercial design featuring an ornate corbelled brick cornice. decorative brick pilasters, six bay facade with limestone sills and lintels. The building retains its original storefront and layout and showcases the original interior structural old-growth white pine timbers tied-together with iron rods and bolts.
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Nowadays, the building persists as a contributor to the Third Avenue Historic District and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
And following my cataract surgery It has become brighter, clearer and more colorful to behold.
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