Meeker's Hardware

Meeker's Hardware
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Store in 2007
Location:	Danbury, CT
Coordinates:	41°23′52″N 73°27′04″W / 41.39778°N 73.45111°W / 41.39778; -73.45111Coordinates: 41°23′52″N 73°27′04″W / 41.39778°N 73.45111°W / 41.39778; -73.45111
Built:	1883[1]
Architectural style:	Classical Revival
Governing body:	Private business
NRHP Reference#:	83001253
Added to NRHP:	June 9, 1983

Meeker's Hardware (also known as The Red Block) is located at White Street and Patriot Drive in downtown Danbury, Connecticut, United States, near the city's train station and the Danbury Railway Museum, just outside the city's Main Street Historic District. It was built in 1883, opened in 1885 and has remained in the Meeker family ever since. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. It is the only hardware store currently on the Register.^[2] The Classical Revival exterior features a brick face with seven bays and a frieze at the top boasting a central pediment above its cornice. The name of the store is painted on both outside walls and displayed prominently in the front between the two stories. It is complemented by an interior that remains much as it did in the late 19th century. A vintage cash register is still in use. Tools and supplies are stocked in wooden shelves and compartments with thick, unfinished hardwood flooring beneath and high ceilings above, with ceiling fans to cool the building in the summertime.

Ad for ten-cent Pepsis

On the northeast wall of the building there is a large advertisement for ten-cent Pepsi drinks, using the old logo. This is not just a decorative touch; the drinks are available in the store in three-US-ounce (90 mL) plastic cups for that price. Originally the sign advertised Coca-Cola for five cents, which the store sold starting in 1983; it was a landmark to most visitors arriving at the nearby train station. The store switched to Pepsi and raised the price to ten cents in 2006 after the local Coca-Cola bottler told them they would have to install newer fountain equipment that would make the drinks unprofitable.^[3]

References

1. ^ "Meeker's Hardware Inc. — Danbury, Connecticut". http://www.manta.com/coms2/dnbcompany_zhzhm. Retrieved 2008-03-15. 
2. ^ "Danbury:Recreation". 2007. http://www.city-data.com/us-cities/The-Northeast/Danbury-Recreation.html. Retrieved 2008-03-15. "Meeker's Hardware store in Danbury is the only hardware store on the National Register of Historic Places" 
3. ^ Lomuscio, James (2005-04-03). "The 5-Cent Coke Goes the Way Of the Sarsaparilla". The New York Times. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9407EED7133FF930A35757C0A9639C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all. Retrieved 2008-03-15. "The store, Mr. Meeker said, would finally stop selling 5-cent Cokes, and replace them with 10-cent Pepsis ... Coca-Cola is one of the first images commuters spy as the Metro-North train pulls into the Danbury station. Twenty-two years ago Meeker's began offering 5-cent Cokes in three-ounce cups from a small fountain in the store ... But when a Coca-Cola sales representative recently asked Mr. Meeker to install a more complex and expensive soda fountain, the store's 88-year-old relationship with Coke went flat ... Harriet Tolve, a spokeswoman for Coca-Cola in Elmsford, N.Y., said, 'The machinery he has to offer Coca-Colas for a nickel is antiquated because we don't offer premix.'"