Finkles Hardware
Reference
Do you need parts for your nineteenth-century oil lamp? Chances are that Finkles will have them! The store is seemingly endless, with boxes of pipe fittings made in the 1800s right next to plumbing supplies for 2000s-era fixtures. Touted as "The World's Most Unusual Hardware Store," it's a destination for hardware-lovers from all over; I can easily spend an entire day there—and indeed I have.
In 1900, Russian native Joe Finkle moved into a small home in Lambertville to establish a scrap dealership, buying and selling scrap he'd collect as he walked from Trenton to Stockton and back. As his reputation for fairness grew, in 1917 he purchased an old coal dealer on Coryell Street, which at the time was a small one-room shack.
Over the years, Joe and his brother turned what was once a scrap dealership into a thriving, sprawling hardware business. Today, Finkles occupies four buildings—one of them the former Strand Theater—and a warehouse, below.
The Model
The storefront of the original building could not be more plain, and its add-on-and-add-on-more nature makes it an ideal subject for bashing. My starting point may surprise some people: a Plasticville snap-together kit! The tooling is surprisingly good, and the likeness is uncanny.