(This column was first printed Jan. 8, 2004, in the Tallahassee Democrat)
Sometimes when you tear away bricks and mortar, you discover a window to the past. That’s what happened in downtown Tallahassee, where demolition of the one-time county library has uncovered a decades-old storefront window — that a developer now hopes to incorporate in a new condominium project.
The project is The Tennyson, a 14-story complex of retail shops and condominium apartments going up on the east side of the 100 block of North Monroe Street. Last month, several old buildings on the site — including one that served as the Leon County Public Library from 1962 to 1978 — were torn down to make way for the new construction.
But demolition revealed the long-unseen south side of an ornate brick building on the corner of Monroe and East Call Street — and its ceiling-to-ground plate-glass window with “Chas. Williams Hardware Co., Mill Supplies” in gold-leaf lettering.
Though the window and building are not an official historic landmark, they date back more than 80 years. Tallahassee-raised baby boomers will remember the building best as the longtime Little Folks toy store. Today, the building is one of three that were fused 20 years ago into the law offices of prominent lawyer Dexter Douglass.
But the discovery has prompted a groundswell of interest from local history buffs, who would like to preserve the window for public viewing — and their cries have been heard.
The Tennyson developer, Sonny Granger, has his architects working on ways to incorporate the window into his project. Possibilities include creating a covered arcade or open courtyard between the Tennyson’s first-floor retail shops and the window, or transferring the entire window to an interior wall of The Tennyson. Construction on The Tennyson begins next month and is scheduled for completion in mid-2005.
“It depends on what the city will allow; it’s totally driven by fire code (regulations),” Granger said. “But (the window) is definitely so pretty that I would like to find some way to highlight it.”
Originally a showroom
The old brick building is 131-133 N. Monroe St. The building was built in the 1920s, apparently as the showroom of what old city directories list as Trawick Motors.
Sometime in the early 1930s, Trawick Motors moved out. Charles Williams, who had a hardware store in the 100 block of South Monroe, moved his business across the street and one block north into the old showroom at 131 N. Monroe St.
Williams, according to his granddaughter, Patsy Osterhout, was a native of Bainbridge, Ga., who moved to Tallahassee in 1913 and opened his hardware store soon after. Williams prospered, his granddaughter said, because he owned land he later sold to the city for Lafayette Park, built several houses along the eponymous Williams Street, which borders the park, and helped bankroll the 1927 construction of Tallahassee’s first “skyscraper,” the six-story Exchange Building at Monroe Street and College Avenue.
After Williams’ death in the mid-1930s, his only son, Charles Jr., operated the store until the early 1940s. After Charles Jr. quit the hardware business, his family continued to own the building.
In 1940, the “Chas. Williams Hardware” window was covered up by construction of an auto-parts company next door at 129 N. Monroe — a building that later became Angelo’s Restaurant (1964-80).
By 1946, the Williams family had acquired the next-door gas station at 133 N. Monroe St., and the two buildings were remodeled into a single building. The plate-glass window on the south was covered by an interior wall, and the building was rented to a succession of tenants.
In 1953, Jack and Margaret Finley opened the Little Folks Store in the north half of the building, and the Western Auto hardware chain store rented the south half, once occupied by Williams Hardware. Western Auto moved out in the early 1960s. The Little Folks store, run by daughter Linda Kay Finley, remained until 1974 (then moved to a series of north-side locations before closing in 1998).
In 1979, the building and two adjoining buildings along East Call Street were purchased by Douglass, who remodeled the buildings into an office complex. Douglass, who grew up in Tallahassee and has practiced law here since 1955, is amenable to helping Granger include the old window in The Tennyson.
“We never even knew it was there until they tore down the other buildings, but I think it’s interesting,” Douglass said. “I think anything that would help the community is good.”
The potential roadblock is fire safety: City regulations require walls between two buildings sharing a common property line to reduce the chances of a fire spreading. But the city’s chief building inspector, Ronnie Spooner, said there are alternatives such as adding sprinklers inside and outside any opening.
“Nobody’s approached us yet, so I don’t know what they might come up with,” Spooner said. “But (leaving the window open) is not necessarily not allowed.”
Many hope something can be worked out.
“I would absolutely love it if it can be saved,” Osterhout said. “We lose so much history every day, and that’s a part of Tallahassee history.”
Gerald Ensley was a reporter and columnist for the Tallahassee Democrat from 1980 until his retirement in 2015. He died in 2018 following a stroke. The Tallahassee Democrat is publishing columns capturing Tallahassee’s history from Ensley’s vast archives each Sunday through 2024 in the Opinion section as part of theTLH 200: Gerald Ensley Memorial Bicentennial Project.
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