A Short Road Trip To The Mountains And Small Towns Of West Virginia; Martin and Jones Hardware Store

Martin and Jones Hardware Store, Ronceverte, West Virginia (click to enlarge)
The hardware store was a fascinating place as well as an excellent subject for photography.  Inside,
except for the merchandise and employees, it is largely unchanged from when it was first opened
in 1904.  All images made with the Fujifilm X-T5 and 16-55mm f/2.8 lens handheld.

Last week, a close friend and photographer (TwoLaneTouring.com) and I decided rent an Airbnb and spend a few days exploring the small towns and mountains in eastern West Virginia.  We ended up staying four days.  We could have stayed much longer as photographic subject matter seemed everywhere.  We spent some of our days exploring small towns buried deep in the valleys between ridges of the Appalachian Mountains and other times exploring a few West Virginia and National Parks.

The weather forecast was for rain all week and, unfortunately for a change, the weather forecasters were right on target.  It rained every day.  Some days not all day, but every day.  Despite the forecast and holding the belief that "bad weather can make for good photographs," we decided to proceed with our road trip and subsequent wanderings.  We both agreed we had a terrific time just exploring and photographing.

One of the small towns we visited was Ronceverte.  Ronceverte is a town of about 1600 people located in Greenbrier County and on the Greenbrier River.  According to Wikipedia...

Ronceverte is French for "Bramble Green", which is the Gallic equivalent for "Greenbrier".

The earliest settlers responsible for naming things seemed to have been obsessed with the word and meaning of "Greenbrier."  The name is everywhere!

One other important aspect of Ronceverte's survival and early prosperity is the fact that the railroad's mainline runs along the river next to downtown.  Students of history know how important railroads were (and are) in establishing settlements as well as being the life blood for bringing people, goods and services to town.  Ronceverte may not exist today if it weren't for the Chesapeake and Ohio (Now CSX) Railroad laying track and building freight and passenger stations in town.

CSX Railroad and mainlines.  Amtrak also travels through
here but does not stop.  The old coaling tower for steam
locomotives sits in the distance. (click to enlarge)
Did I mention gloom and rain?  Lol

In Ronceverte (the "e" is silent, by the way), we stumbled upon an old hardware store.  The kind of store that was common in the early years of the 20th century.  In fact, the Martin and Jones Hardware store was opened in 1904 and a descendent of the original owner still runs the establishment.  I enjoyed chatting with him for some time as he provided us with a bit of history of the store as well as some interesting information about the town.

The outside and inside of the old hardware store is largely unchanged.  What has changed is much of the merchandise that is now sold.  Old, out of date items have been replaced with modern wares.  That make sense.

This road is next to the railroad tracks.  Rail cars, using a long removed siding, would enter the 
bottom floor of the store (in the rear brick area) and offload goods inside the building. (click to enlarge)

The original original sign is still proudly displayed at the entrance.
(click to enlarge)

The store is the kind of place that I could see where friends would gather, sit at a table in the back, talk, solve the world's problems, tell a few corny jokes, laugh and say hello to other customers who may arrive but are also friends or acquaintances.  A place of familiarity and comfort.

We spent the better part of an hour in the hardware store making photographs and talking to various clerks as well as customers.  Everyone was kind, considerate, helpful and generous with their time.  And....that is the way it should be with everyone!  Indeed!

Here are a few more of the images I made in and around the Martin and Jones Hardware store.  Oh!  A heart felt thank you to employees of Martin and Jone for allowing us to photograph unimpeded inside the store as well as the back room.

Just a note about the Fujifilm X-T5.  I was pleasantly surprised by the dynamic range and low noise this camera produced when photographing inside this store.  The photo at the top of the page shows detail outside in sunlight as well as the dimly lit inside.  That was a single exposure, not several images merged together.  ISOs ranged from 250 up to ISO 6400 and noise was minimal.  Again, I was pleasantly surprised as how well the X-T5 handled the variety of light as well as dynamic range.  Nice!

Think of this as a Lowe's or Home Depot but a century earlier.  They carry a little bit of everything.
(click to enlarge)

One of my images from the back stock room.  Notice the single light bulb that
is augmented by the natural light from the window. (click to enlarge)

Need a shovel? (click to enlarge)

(click to enlarge)

Boxcars would enter from the left side of the building to offload their goods safely out of the 
weather. (click to enlarge)

I think it is delightful that the owners of this hardware store have maintained its charm and century old style and a small town as Ronceverte has such an interesting and useful asset as

we found here.  Too many times, "redevelopment fever" takes over and the powers that be think that the only way they can improve things is to tear down the old and replace with the new.  Too often the new is soulless. 

Join me over at my website, https://www.dennismook.com. 

Thanks for looking. Enjoy!  

Dennis A. Mook  

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