By Bob Cudmore

   Ted Krown of Amsterdam was 16 when he went to work at Larrabee’s, a Market Street hardware store.

   Krown was a salesman at Larrabee’s for more than fifty years.  During the 1969 company Christmas party at the former Tower Inn in Cranesville, Krown recalled what Market Street was like a half century earlier.  He received a wristwatch and tie clasp at the party from fellow workers.

   John E. Larrabee began his hardware career working for merchant E. T. Leavenworth.  In 1889 Larrabee married Louise Leavenworth. They had two daughters.

   When the Sanford Homestead Building was constructed in 1891 by carpet magnate Stephen Sanford on the east side of Market Street, Larrabee opened his own hardware store in the building. 

   The Recorder reported that Krown was born on Amsterdam’s Union Street and attended Eighth Ward Elementary School, “The veteran salesman began (at Larrabee’s) under the tutelage of E. Warner Leavenworth and after an apprenticeship of ‘lugging in freight and unpacking’ he was entrusted with clerking responsibilities.”

   The Recorder wrote that for salesman Krown, “Household wares were the early emphasis and gradually he graduated to appliances as labor savers were introduced to lighten housework.

   Krown married Laura Martin in 1930.  They lived at 344 Division Street.  Laura worked at Blood Knitting Mill.  They had no children.       

   Krown said, “I started the other day to jot down names of people with whom I've worked in this store and I stopped when I reached 200. About 85 of them are dead."  The workers Krown mentioned were Irving DeGraff, Harley DeGraff and Frank Dean.

   Krown was one of the pall bearers when E. Warner Leavenworth died in 1940. 

   Larrabee’s sold retail and wholesale hardware and provided supplies for industries.  Located at 5 Market Street the store expanded to 3 Market Street, previously home to the Odd Figure Bazaar.  Larrabee’s also expanded in the other direction and took over 9 Market Street. 

   Larrabee’s offered Ike Walton fishing boots for $6.95 in March of 1937 as over a thousand hunters and fishermen attended the annual Sportsmen’s Show in Amsterdam.

   E. Warner Leavenworth’s son Tom, who had joined the firm in 1931, became company president in 1940.

    In the 1950s Larrabee’s sold toys especially at Christmas, including Lionel and American Flyer model trains.  Each brand installed a model train layout in the store. 

   Larrabee’s was sold in 1960 and Tom Leavenworth pursued other business ventures, including his work as treasurer of Inman Manufacturing, which made machinery for the box making industry.

   The new owners of Larrabee’s, Ailing Beardsley and Mary Louise Rossiter, began an expansion in 1961, putting emphasis on selling items to new industries that were starting as Amsterdam’s carpet mills exited.  Beardsley and Rossiter expanded appliance sales along with Larrabee’s previous emphasis on hardware, housewares, gifts and toys.

   Beardsley, a World War II infantry veteran, had operated an industrial supply firm in New Jersey.  He was married to Carol Rossiter.  She was originally from Albany and related to Mary Louise Rossiter, who lived in Slingerlands and headed an Albany real estate firm.

   Samuel H. Anderson, who was active in local politics, continued for a time as Larrabee’s manager.  Within a few years though Anderson started his own sporting goods store.  In 1967 he left for a department store position in Los Angeles.

   In late 1971 Larrabee’s moved to the former Sears store at 86 East Main Street to make way for a new bank building on Market Street.

   In 1972 Beardsley’s son, also named Ailing, was made retail manager and was up for an award from the Junior Chamber of Commerce.

   Larrabee’s filed for bankruptcy in 1973.

Mohawk Valley News The Daily Gazette, The Recorder News, The Leader-Herald and Nippertown. https://www.dailygazette.com/

91 years later, Slezak's gas station in Amsterdam still runs in the family
By Charles Erickson