The Tin Shop, Hardware Store, Restaurant; 45 Main Street

Todays Wildwood Smokehouse is remembered by many as the site of the old Laskey’s Hardware store. But years before Laskey's there were other skilled craftsmen working in this building making items by bending tin, soldering iron, and threading steel pipes. This was an 1800s Tin Shop, an important resource for the many local mills and small businesses.

Although this building at the corner is currently a restaurant, many Sunapee folk remember it as the only hardware store in the village. In the 1800s before commercial hardware stores, there were tin shops where skilled craftsmen would cut, bend, shape, and create many of the items needed by homeowners.

In the 1880s, there was a successful Tin Shop operating in this building. In 1887 it was purchased by the owners of the Hame Works mill who owned a number of properties in the area. The rapid growth of the mill put pressure on available housing and in 1901 the owners decided to improve this property with a tin-shop addition and a two-story tenement building. These additions made the property more profitable and provided housing for their workers.

In 1905, former hame works owner George Bartlett owned the property which included the tin shop, a barn, and a tenement wing. Bartlett sold the Tin Shop Block in 1921 to Clifford and Alden Gamsby of Sunapee thus making the Gamsby brothers the first tin shop operator to also own the real estate. In 1947 Marvin Laskey operated a plumbing, heating and hardware business here known as Laskey’s Hardware until well into the 1960s.

For a deeper look into the stories of all that has happened here over the years, check with the Sunapee Historic Society. Look for Sunapee's Historic Buildings & Places Vol. 1 . 

Barbara Bache Chalmers, Sunapee's Historic Buildings & Places Vol. 1 (Sunapee Historical Society, 1918 & 1919).