Community Corner

Downtown All Torn Up Monday

Anyone trying to park in front of Ridgefield Hardware Co. Monday had a tough time of it. Contractors for Yankee Gas had cut open the asphalt street, and they were installing gas lines.

Jerry Rabin at the Hardware Co. said he was hoping the work would leave the surface level and smooth on street and on the narrow driveway between the Hardware store and Deborah Ann's Sweet Shop next door.

"If it's smooth, we can use the fork lift," Rabin said. Meanwhile, he was keeping the hardware store open despite the missing parking spaces out front. Customers had no trouble finding their way inside. He said his parents, Ed and Dorothy, opened the shop in a smaller storefront across the street in 1938.

Today, customers inside the Ridgefield Hardware Co. see cooking equipment by Le Creuset, appliances by Cuisinart, Wusthof knives and even a couple of Radio Flyer wagons. The shop itself was designed by Architect Orpheus H. Fisher, husband of Marion Anderson. Fisher built the 7,000-square-foot retail space using steel beams to avoid obstructive columns inside the store, Rabin said.


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