Sarasota News Leader

09/28/12

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FADING INTO HISTORY Patrick Maurer checks out the paint brushes in Sarasota Hardware. Photos by Scott Proffitt SARASOTA HARDWARE, SUPER VALUE NUTRITION LEAVING HOLES HARD TO FILL ON MAIN STREET By Scott Proffitt Staff Writer There's always a smell to old stores like Sara- sota Hardware, the smell of pine wood that's been heated and cooled for decades, causing it to exude the fragrance of the sap from a hundred years of aging. The smell of the store in- cludes the scents of oils and grease, metal parts and key oil, and the extraordinary number of rubber belts that hang from the ceiling in neat rows. These all come togeth- er in a mélange that is pleas- ing, increasingly rare to find and cherished by many. Come November, that smell will become in- creasingly rare: After 78 years, Sarasota Hard- ware is closing its doors. The store is tied to the history of the town. Map image courtesy Google It all started with a woman named Materia Kicklighter, who opened up the business in 1934, a time when it was unusual for a woman to have anything to do with start- ing a business, much less a hardware store. She was a smart, hardworking woman, succeeded by her son, John

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