Existing comment:
Most Lonesome Spot'
Tools for the Trades
Silver Heritage Georgia Avenue
In 1912 John H. and Thomas Hunter opened Hunter Bros., a hardware and implements business, on what John described as "the most lonesome spot between Glenmont and the city of Washington." Housed in a two-story wood frame structure, the hardware business had earlier been owned and operated by James H. Cissel, a co-founder in 1910 of the Silver Spring National Bank.
Located on the Washington and Brookeville Turnpike (Georgia Avenue), Hunter Bros. was positioned to serve Montgomery County farmers transporting their bounty to Washington, D.C. markets. Farmers would place orders with the Hunters on their way to D.C. and pick them up on the return to their farms.
In 1920, John bought out his brother's share of the business, and in 1925 replaced the wood structure with the current brick building at 8126 Georgia Avenue. The Structure's cornerstone, dated 1896, attests to the year John established himself in the hardware business as a sixteen-year-old working for Ornoff & Truxton Co., located at 203 7th Street, NW, in Washington D.C. Hunter likely had this cornerstone fabricated to reflect the number of years that he had been in the hardware business.
Beloved by his employees, Hunter fired but one employee during the thirty-three years that he operated his hardware store. "It hurt me more than it did him," he was quoted as saying in a March 4, 1946 Washington Post article covering a testimonial dinner held in honor of his retirement. John H. Hunter passed away in 1960 at the age of eighty. (The story continues on the other side.) |