Harrison Brothers Hardware

A.M. Booth contractor account page.

Harrison Brothers' sales boomed because of the business of mill workers and the popularity of Queensware and other household goods. In 1901, the brothers purchased No. 2 Commercial Row and planned to expand their merchandise into the second storefront. On December 21, 1901, a fire broke out on Commercial Row and caused $33,800 in damages. The Harrison Brothers' two buildings had losses estimated at $4,500.[1] Despite the damages, Harrison Brothers continued selling merchandise in December 1901 and in 1902 while the store was being repaired.[2] Harrison Brothers hired contractor A.M. Booth and mason Daniel Brandon to rebuild the store.

Daniel Brandon was a leader in Huntsville's black community. He served as a city alderman and continued running his father's masonry business, Henderson Brandon and son, after his father's health declined at the turn of the century. Daniel Brandon's masonry work is responsible for the iconic Harrison Brothers storefront Huntsvillians know today.[3]

With the addition of the second store, Harrison Brothers expanded their merchandise beyond Queensware and lamps. According to a 1908 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, Harrison Brothers sold furniture in the original store, number 2, and Queensware in the addition, number 3.[4] Harrison Brothers continued to keep up with the latest innovations in cookware, as they had done with Queensware. In the 1920s Harrison Brothers began a new marketing campaign for their stoves and ranges.[5] By 1921, Harrison Brothers was selling hardware in number 2 and furniture in number 3.[6] The store continued to sell other popular household products like stoves and skillets, but also became known for its hardware.[7] When the store was bought by the Historic Huntsville Foundation in 1984, it was referred to as Harrison Brothers Hardware, rather than just Harrison Brothers.

Since 1897, when Harrison Brothers moved to Commercial Row, it has gone by many names. Harrison Brothers Tobacco was the local store that Huntsville's middle and upper-class men and businesses looked to for their smoking needs. Harrison Brothers Queensware was the place that Huntsville's growing population of cotton mill workers looked to for a sense of luxuary in their less than glamouros village lives. And Harrison Brothers Hardware is Alabama's oldest operating hardware store because of the Harrison family's ability to adapt to the ever changing needs of the Huntsville communtiy. 

Today, the history of Huntsville cotton mill workers has largely been forgotten or hidden behind skyhigh apartment buildings and underneath interstate 565, but cotton mill workers, despite Huntsville's attempts to keep them outside the city limits, had a significant impact on the consumer economy. Without the business that the mill workers brought to Harrison Brothers in 1900, the store likely would not have changed their small town business practices or continued to operate through the century. The gradual changes Harrison Brothers made throughout the twentieth century were easier and sustainable because of the drastic change to Queensware that the store made in 1900. Queensware was accessible and desirable for all people in Huntsville. To the people of Huntsville today, Harrison Brothers is a place to purchase local goods, artwork, and unique gifts; but the original floors, 1907 cash register, and historic trinkets are a reminder of Harrison Brothers' central role in the community: to provide what people need to make Huntsville feel like home.