Field Trip Friday: Harrison Brothers Hardware Store

We're back for week two of Field Trip Friday. I was so excited to see some link-ups last week! Feel free to grab the Field Trip Friday button- I'd be grateful if you'd link back to this site, and tell all your bloggy friends. Let's get started for week two!

As I mentioned last week, we went to the Huntsville Museum of Art but that was only part of our day. After we toured the museum, we also walked to the square to see the oldest hardware store in Alabama, Harrison Brothers Hardware Store. We were meeting with a group of local homeschoolers for an arranged tour.

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Harrison Brothers Hardware was established in 1879 and was family owned and operated until the death of John Harrison in 1983. At this time, the Historic Huntsville Foundation purchased the store and the contents and began to run the store with volunteers in 1984 and it's been open ever since. Today you'll find a store packed with treasures from the past and special trinkets for today.

Our tour began at the antique hand cranked cash register where learned some of the history of the store. Built by an Ohio company, this National cash register is 103 years old and still rings up transactions today.

Along our guided tour we saw the rolling ladders that were used to reach items from the top shelves, saw a rope powered elevator, glimpsed inside huge safe that survived a fire and saw the original desk of the Harrison family that displays their unique filing system.


In the picture if you look on the wall behind my children, who by the way are listening intently, you will see a metal hanger with a bunch of scraps of papers hanging from it. This was the filing system. When the hanger would no longer hold any receipts, they would be removed, thrown in a box and stored upstairs. Pretty simple, but a modern day accountants nightmare, wouldn't you say?

If you ask my kids what the highlight of the field trip was, they'd tell you that was at the conclusion of the tour when they browsed through the selection of retro candies from the 40's, 50's and 60's. They bought the old fashioned stick candy, candy cigars, Chick-o-Sticks and candy cigarettes and a Sprite in a glass bottle.

So, that's a wrap-up of our field trip. What'd you do this week? Do you have a field trip you'd like to share? Just add your link to Mcklinky and we'll hop on over and take a peek. And remember, we'll do this again next week. Same time. Same place. Happy Field Trippin'!