Hardware Store Hardware Store
As was true of many other town merchants, the hardware dealer was certainly not a specialist. He would only stock the items that he thought his customers would buy. Many hardware stores also had farm implement departments, while others operated lumber yards in conjunction with their hardware trade. Many hardware stores offered to pick up stoves in the spring for cleaning and blacking. The store would then put the stoves into storage for the summer, and then return them to the home in the fall set them up for another heating season.
The building housing the Railroad Town Hardware Store uses dates back to before the turn of the century. From 1873 to 1904, it was originally located in today's Pioneer Park in Grand Island, which was the location of the original Hall County Court House. It held fire hoses and equipment and was 
known as the Ott Hose House. It was located at the northeast corner of W. Koenig and S. Washington streets (1204 W. Koenig) in Grand Island. In that location it first housed fire hoses and equipment until a new fire station was built. The building was then used as was as a voting or polling site. It was then leased to the Grand Island Sketch Club as a meeting site, workshop and gallery. In 1973, the museum purchased the building for $1, and the Sketch Club paid the moving expenses for the museum. By mid-July of 1974, the structure is on museum grounds, but not yet on a foundation. Between the time of its arrival at the museum and the spring of 1986, the site was used as a Crafters House. For an undetermined number of years beginning in 1978, Jim Duda had a stained glass studio in this location. In the spring of 1986 Kari Geiger opened a millinery shop in this location. The millinery shop remained a fixture of Railroad Town until May of 1992 when the Railroad Town Hardware Store opened.
Prior to its move to the museum, this structure did not have a picture window. In fact, while used by the Grand Island Sketch Club, there was no window in that area at all. This has been confirmed by several pictures in 
the Grand Island Daily Independent, both prior to its move and after it is here on the grounds. According to Tom Anderson, via Kari Geiger, a garage door was located in approximately the same area of the present day picture window. The type of door was a double, swing out style, much like the old style garage doors. This would be consistent with the structure being a hose/fire equipment house, and would predate the structures use by the Sketch Club. Other information from Kari Geiger: The chimney was once located on the center back wall. It was removed by Maynard Boltz before the site was turned into a millinery store.