An iconic Hamden landmark is being torn down. The town said the old Spring Glen Hardware building had to be demolished out of concerns that it could collapse.
“I feel like our community is definitely missing something. It’s just weird,” Meri Harary of Hamden said.
It’s a strange feeling for many, seeing the former Spring Glen Hardware store reduced to rubble on Thursday.
“All those years, all that history is just gone, it seems like in an hour or something,” Deborah Bellmore of Hamden said.
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The hardware store was considered a fixture for many in the Spring Glen neighborhood for more than seven decades. Former customers loved the personal charm of the building and business.
“The wooden floors and the little creek and the shoe repair,” Bellmore said.
But the historic building had to come down.
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Mayor Lauren Garrett said some foundation walls caved in on Wednesday as the building was being renovated for a new business.
That owner just bought the property about a month ago. The town acted quick, making the call less than 24 hours later to tear it down.
“Different engineers, from the private owner’s engineers to our own engineers, building officials all agreed that the building needed to come down,” Garrett said.
Mayor Garrett says there were road closures and a parking ban for the duration of the demolition.
While she’s sad to see the building go, she said safety had to come first.
“We just want people to be safe. It would be an absolute tragedy if there were workers in that building and it collapsed, so it’s being done out of a lot of precaution,” she said.
For former customers, it'll take some time to get used to not seeing it there.
“It’s almost like when you lose a tooth and you keep feeling for it and you’re like, ‘It’s not there’ and you want it to be there,” Harary said.
The current building owner’s fiancée told NBC Connecticut there were plans to have an antique store, but now that’s up in the air with this demolition.
It’s unclear how long this process will take.
