Reflections on Mitchell Hardware

Mitchell Hardware as seen today.

Snapshot: October 1987 — a typical Saturday morning at the Corner Grill (now the Chelsea), the restaurant filled with people enjoying a leisure breakfast while catching up on the week’s news.

At one particular table the conversation of three locals, Paul Johnson, Stewart Smith and Harold Talton turned to the fate of Mitchell’s Hardware located in the Old City Hall Building on Craven Street.

The original location of Mitchell Hardware at
220 Craven St. is occupied today by
Ballantynes Framing & Art.

Paul Johnson, Buzz Mitchell’s health is so poor I hear they are going to sell Mitchell’s Hardware. Stewart’s response, Harold, let’s buy it!

On the following Wednesday, October 7, Harold Talton had “closed the deal” and he and his wife Pat were the sole owners of an old-timey hardware store that had been in the Mitchell family for over 90 years.

In a conversation with Harold (Swiss Bear Chairman) I raised the obvious question. Why did a successful businessman, community leader, a regional vice president for First Citizens Bank, recently recognized for 40 years of service, buy, relocate and expand an old-timey store?

Here’s Harold’s reply beginning with a brief history lesson. Mitchell Hardware started out as a livery stable in 1898, which sold in addition to mules and horses, wagons and harnesses. In the early 1900’s they went out of the livery business and got into hardware. To put it more colorfully, they opened the gate, ran the horses and mules off and brought in the hardware.

Within a year’s time, change was in the wind. My original intention was to stay at the location on 220 Craven Street but the space, only 17 feet wide, just wasn’t big enough. The Parker Building just across the street was on the market and I saw the potential.

Harold continued, even before I heard the hardware store was for sale on that Saturday morning over coffee, I knew Greg Smith, a Boy Scout executive for 10 years, was looking to change his life style. Before I made the offer on the building, I talked with Greg. Within a two-week period, Greg was married, had a new job and was in a new town to run and manage the hardware store.

When I turn in my key and Master Card at First Citizens Bank, I hope to spend some time there.

What they attempted to do was recreate a turn-of-the-century hardware store. The fact that Mitchell’s was old-timey is the main reason Harold bought it. He enjoyed going to auctions and estate sales to look for and buy items that would have been sold at the turn-of-the-century. They are used as decorations in the store, but most items are for sale.

When they purchased the S.B. Parker Building, the tin-pressed ceilings were still in-tact. Although many people recommended lowering the ceilings to retain all the fluorescent fixtures that had been hung over the years, he removed and replaced them with lights from that era and three old ceiling paddle fans that were made the same year the building was constructed.

He put in wooden floors and built additional shelving to match the original shelving that was still in the building. The counter is the original counter from the old Mitchell Hardware.

Over the years he continued to add “old” items and merchandise to “add to the customer’s experience”.

The hardware carries a full range of nails, paints, tools, etc., and specialty food items - jams, smoked hams in season, even honey from his own bees.

As a result of a casual conversation one Saturday morning, Mitchell Hardware incorporated as “Hams, Jams, Hardware and Stuff, Inc.” is and continues to be a place where people browse, visit, and explore for no better reason than they just like being there for the pure pleasure of being there.

*Harold Talton was chairman of Swiss Bear for a total of eight years. He passed away in 2008 and Greg bought the business from the Talton family several years later. It was a wise decision on Harold’s part to bring Greg into the business. Greg is an ambassador for downtown and Mitchell Hardware is a destination for visitors and area citizens alike.

November a good month for local man to give thanks

Bear Bucks Raffle 

November has been a good month for Maury Barg to give thanks. It was during a Thanksgiving holiday trip to Eastern North Carolina a dozen years ago that Barg and his wife Rita visited New Bern and then made it their home the next year.

Now, the River Bend homeowner has another November moment to remember — winning the $10,000 drawing in the Bear Bucks Raffle fundraiser for Swiss Bear Downtown Development Corp.

Barg will do the gentlemanly thing and split the prize with his wife.

Not generally a gambling man, Barg said he bought some tickets after getting an email request from his friend Tom McGraw, a Swiss Bear board member.

After the recent drawing at the Holiday Gift Show, Barg got a telephone call from the Raffle Committee Chairwoman Judy Avery, telling him his ticket had been drawn from several thousand that were sold.

“That was very nice, but I thought she was joking,” Barg said. “I bought the tickets because of Tom and he said the money would be used for good things.”

The raffle was to aid Swiss Bear, which has been the ramrod behind the revitalization of downtown since the 1980s.

Barg said he and his wife first came to New Bern on a day trip while visiting their daughter, who had accepted a new job as an attorney in Greenville.

The Bargs had lunch downtown, took in the sights and rode the trolley.

When they returned to their Connecticut home of 40 years, they thought about making a move to New Bern.

They lived in a house on a big lake, so waterfront was important, he said.

They visited several coastal towns, including Bath and Washington, but decided New Bern was the right fit.

“We wanted the river, not a canal,” he said.

The Bear Bucks Raffle kicked off in August with a goal to raise funding and awareness for Swiss Bear. The campaign is expected to raise more than $14,000.

A campaign committee included Avery, along with Linda Mattocks, Susan Braaten, Mike Neill, Michelle Lynn, Christy Rollins, Chad Sittig and Gilbert Stroud.

The Swiss Bear board was divided into five teams, with nine board members each. Team leaders were Bob Mattocks, Bill Fentress, Cindy Turco, Dell Ipock and Ernie Richardson. 

Turco’s team had the most overall sales, while Mattock’s group had the most individual sales, with more than $1,000. McGraw, who sold Barg the winning ticket, came in a close second. 

Flag company owner Bill Rust provided a flag for highest sales to Mattocks.

The Unforgettable first Coastal Christmas Celebration

In the Spirit of the Season, reflecting on memories from 1984.

Santa is shown arriving in 1984 at the intersection of
Pollock and Middle streets downtown.

My recent conversation with Linda Morris was filled with hearty laughter as she reminisced about the pitfalls and foibles of the first Coastal Carolina Celebration Tree Lighting Ceremony in 1984, and its unforgettable ending.

Susan, it was awful, just awful! I was never so embarrassed in my entire life. I wanted to crawl in a hole and die!

Linda served on the Swiss Bear Board in the mid-1980’s and among other contributions, initiated and served as chairman of the Coastal Christmas Celebration during her tenure as a director.

Linda recalled, As a New Bern native, I had many vivid happy memories of a downtown that celebrated the holidays; the Molly Heath tree in the Christ Episcopal Church yard was always decorated with Christmas lights. Christmas music filled the air. Santa had a little house on Middle Street and there was always , a Christmas parade- all of those kinds of things—but the decline of the downtown in the ‘70’s put an end to all of that. The whole idea was to create an event that would bring people back downtown, one that would get families involved.

A Swiss Bear Christmas Committee was organized in September 1984 and members met with East Carolina Yacht Club members to discuss a flotilla parade of decorated boats on the waterfront. Since it was so late in the year and construction of the new Sheraton Hotel and marina was underway in the urban renewal area on the Trent River waterfront, the decision was made to pursue organizing a flotilla in 1985.

In the meantime, when permission was received from the Christ Episcopal Church to decorate the Molly Hearth tree, the committee decided to have a Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony on the evening of December 5, the first Saturday of the month to kick-off the holiday season. Three electrical supply companies contributed the strings of colored lights and the city agreed to put them on the tree.

Harold Talton (Swiss Bear Chairman) agreed to be Santa and would be in a small roller sleigh that, then executive director Marvin Davis brought from Elizabeth City. The program was to begin at 5:30 p.m. (scheduled to last an hour) in front of the old post office (New at Middle Street) with performances by the New Bern High School band and the drill team, the Centenary Church Children’s Bell Choir, and a Christmas Cheer.   

Centenary Church Children's Bell Choir also performed
at the Christmas celebration.

Pro-Musica would lead everyone in parade form down Middle to the intersection of Pollock Street, singing “Here Comes Santa Claus “while two drill team members would pull Santa on the sleigh. When Santa arrived at the intersection, he would make some cheery comments, ask  Reverend Ed Sharp, Rector of Christ Church to give a Christmas blessing and then with a flick of his finger, turn on the lights on the Molly Heath Tree.  

So what went wrong, why was it an awful experience?

Linda continued, on the same day of the celebration, we learned the city had just finished hanging wreaths on the light poles, and had not turned on any of the lights in the decorations.

We came up with the idea we would tie the lighting of the Christmas wreath decorations with the Tree Lighting Ceremony. All of the lights would be tied to a timer so Santa could turn everything on with a flick of his finger. We all know about the best laid plans.

Around noon on December 5, the temperature started to drop and began to rain. Light sleet began to fall and had intensified to the point, by 5 p.m. we knew we were in trouble. Everyone was freezing, children were crying, musicians could barely perform. We managed to cut that portion short and everyone paraded to the Pollock/Middle Street intersection.

As Christmas Cheer was performed at the 1984
Coastal Carolina Celebration Tree Lighting Ceremony.

After a quick blessing and a few ho, ho, ho’s, everyone watched in great anticipation for the moment the lights would all come on. Media cameramen stood poised as Santa flicked the switch. Nothing happened. He flicked it again and again nothing happened. He walked over to me, Linda what went wrong? I don’t know, try again. He flicked it again-still no lights.

Finally we realized the lights weren’t going to come on –the timer had been set for 6:30 p.m. according to the scheduled program. By cutting it short, we were 15 to20 minutes ahead of schedule.

While someone tried to get into City Hall to move the timer ahead, we stood there humiliated, watching everyone leave in total disappointment. When the lights finally did come on, no more than five people were there to see it. It was awful. It’s funny now, but it certainly wasn’t then.

The December 20 Swiss Bear board minutes have a brief entry…Christmas Committee - Agenda item #8... Linda Morris reported, our committee learned from our mistakes this year and will meet in January to plan for next year.

Susan Moffat Thomas, Executive Director

Swiss Bear Downtown Development Corp.