THREE PHOTOS – 157, 157a, 157b

Leland and Robert Knight owned and operated a hardware business at 883 Main St. for many years. The business was sold to Les Babb of Cornish in the late 1960s, who also owned and operated Cornish Hardware in Cornish and Freedom Hardware in Freedom, N.H. In 1970, Jim and Nancy Sanderson purchased the Westbrook store from Babb, changed the name to Sportsman’s Hardware and continued to operate out of the building at 883 Main St. Urban renewal took the structure in 1976. The second and third floors were dismantled and moved to a location in Scarborough and reassembled. The first floor of the old building was in poor structural condition and was demolished. The Sandersons built a new hardware store at 30 Central St., and operated the business at that location for many years before selling it to Don Littlefield. The photo on left shows the old building at 883 Main St. The middle photo shows the site of the old building (between light pole and tree), presently a parking lot, and the third photo shows the hardware store at 30 Central St. built by the Sandersons and now operated by Littlefield.

Research and photos courtesy of Mike Sanphy