The first of April, 2001, was another special day for the building. It had been built by Augustus Nell and then run by his family, then L. G. Mathews and then the Ehrhardt family, the Petersens had become owners of the building through their Historical Resources, Inc. enterprise. The auction by Sullivans had cleared out almost every bit of the hardware stock, but the building was still quite full! Every room was crowded with fixtures and counters from 1879 through the present day, boxes of odd old stock and an amazing collection of empty cartons and crates. This fascinating collection provided a rich treasure of information about the store, its proprietors and its patrons, and will continue to release its secrets and surprises for years. Rushville Hardware History

An invitation to the in-laws in Idaho to come see the building turned into a wonderful three-month work party! Floyd and Bev Worth pitched in like old pros and really made the restoration possible.
 

The interior of the first showroom was the first to be tackled. Many display gondolas, yards of shelving on angle brackets and display panels dropped from the ceiling on chains were removed. Then four remodelings were peeled away to reveal the original surfaces. "Hardware Orange" was the unifying color in the True Value store. Light blue had been applied to some areas not covered in pegboard to lighten the effect for better merchandise display. Under these paints was milk-paint based faux-oak grain of the Mathews' remodel of 1905. Under all was solid walnut with black stained highlights, originally finished in hand rubbed shellac.
 

A band of lightly colored wallboard above the west casework seemed to have been put in during 1905. Over it hung an uninsulated duct which quite dripped with condensation when the air conditioning was in use. The little office area had a roll top desk, a safe and a massive furnace which completely covered the large side window. When all was cleared out, the floor was releveled and a compact horizontal furnace was installed under the window which fed a new duct on top of the west casework, in the position of the old wallboard. It was camoflaged by a repica of the existing fascia still on the wall behind.

Removing the t-bar dropped ceiling, luan paneling on the walls above the shelves, and the pegboard, we uncovered an amazing amount of 1879 detail. Most striking and a revelation we had not expected was the back wall with two 9 foot windows and great arched window over the rear door, and the walnut casework showed great promise. The ceiling and walls had been covered but not been painted for many years and were darkly colored by the oil stoves which had been used for heating before the Bryant gas furnace was installed perhaps in the sixties.

The mid-seventies alterations to the front of the building caused the removal of all the original storefront bulkheads, glass and doors. We found the tall door posts upstairs in another area being used as shelf supports! They were only fragmentary, but they gave us exact locations and dimensions for the new posts, the doors and clerestory window. Notches in the walls on the east and west showed where the bulkheads had been, and photos from Regina Ehrhardt showed marvelous detail of the front of the bulkheads and doors.
 

We looked in vain for the original doors, since the "throw nothing away" policy had not been strictly adhered to. Phone and web searches found a cache of doors at Jan's Antiques in Chicago, and resulted in a pair to fit the 180" high by 69" wide opening. These were antique doors at antique prices, but still more desirable and reasonable than custom doors at custom prices! Even so, Floyd spent days removing the top panels, repairing and refinishing the refurbished old pocket doors into fully functional shop doors. The thumb latch was borrowed from the second showroom's alley doors, and the rim mount massive brass deadbolt from the original back doors of the 1879 building. Months later, a proper selection of cast iron steeple hinges was obtained to match the remnants of the hinges found elsewhere in this part of the building. Six months after all this work, a visitor surprised us by saying she wondered how we had done the doors, since she thought she still had the original doors in her basement! We never had an offer about bringing them back, though. Amazing.
 

Building the bulkheads and framing the windows was a bit of a challenge. The location and detail was getting clearer every time we studied the pictures, but how do you work with cast iron columns that are 3/4" out of plumb when you're trying to fit in insulated glass that comes in perfect rectangles? The quartered panes of this enormous area were originally set into wrought iron t-sections, but we had to have the tees fabricated from half-oval and flat rolled steel shapes that are available today. This framework wants to be as small as possible to look like the original, so there was not much room to hide the edge seals of the insulated glass, and even less space to adjust for the funny angles needed to fit wider panels against narrow panels to adjust for the cockeyed opening. It all went together with not an eighth of an inch to spare. The wooden sash along the top, bottom and the brick wall side were made deep enough to take care of the funny sizes, and the center steel mullions and sash against the columns were kept really thin.

Since the 'seventies store front had been installed out further at the sidewalk and the smaller entry and door within the original entryway, door, it became apparent that we could rebuild the bulkheads, framing and doors without removing the 'seventies stuff. So, when the work was structurally complete with the new windows and doors all closed in, we could take down the old aluminum storefront, awning, windows and door all at once, revealing the 1879 style front in place like magic. A few people thought the old work had always been there underneath!
 
 

Starting early in the day, the awning was removed, then the letters and signage and then the ventilated vertical aluminum front. Beneath that was a considerable amount of aluminum framing and standoffs. At last the original brick front was visible. A short time later the lower window frames and aluminum door were removed and then the exterior trim was added to the bulkheads.
 

Where the orange cornice shows, a layer of fancy cornice trim belongs, and above, where the adjoining buildings have an upper cornice and peak, the replacement cornice will be similar but have a flat top. This work did not continue when we sold the building.

Our Open House on December, 8, 2001, was the first public showing of the restoration, and we had a fabulous turnout of consigners, filling the shop with antiques! We had just received delightful decor items and surprised ourselves in not only filling the showroom, but how wonderful it came together with the decorating.

Summer 2002 arrived and Floyd and Bev Worth returned for another challenging summer! The first visible work was replacing the first cornice. Outlines of some of the trim still showed, and careful reference to photos gave the remaining details. The end brackets were worked out by studying the upper cornice brackets and using the same construction techniques and some of the design details.
 

The second showroom had been used during the restoration of the front showroom as a shop and staging area, and now needed to be restored itself. All the shelving and wall coverings were removed, the ceiling, which had been half covered in corrugated tin about 1905, was furred and new tin was ordered from Toronto to do the entire room.With the completion of the scaffold and the furring for the new ceiling, the Worths returned to Idaho for the year, having made another major contribution to the project. Second Phase
 

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