Then and Now: 639 Main Street, Hellertown (Part 1)

Saturday mornings were always the best. After eating two bowls of Fruit Loops and getting through early karate class in South Bethlehem, my brothers and I would accompany Dad on his errands. Normally we would get the car washed or pick up some cat food from Giant, but my favorite was when Dad had to make a stop inside Carson’s Hardware store along Main Street.

I loved visiting Carson’s with Dad. Carson’s was like a dining room drawer; if you dug around long enough, you’d find exactly what you needed. Residents of Lower Saucon and Hellertown would visit the hardware store to purchase hunting licenses, to have locks re-keyed and to fit their skates with fresh blades. Just like Dad’s tool shed back home, Carson’s was filled with a rich and comforting smell of sawdust and gasoline. Years later, similar smells will still transport me back to the sloped wood floors of Carson’s. While Dad hunted for parts or fuels, I could be found in the lawnmower section, touching things I was pointedly ordered not to touch. I loved lawnmowers. The toy tractors sold in the corner were a close second, but they didn’t offer the same thrill.

Carson’s Hardware, and the businesses that preceded it, were landmarks of Hellertown long before my Saturday morning excursions. 639 Main Street, the former home of Carson’s and the current home of Taste of Italy, was originally a carriage shop erected by Chief Burgess T.R. Laubach around 1866. Harrison Klein, a future burgess of Hellertown, was the man who constructed the carriages, and he shared the shop with the blacksmith William Heffner. It is supposed that Heffner and Klein chose the building to house their shops because it was cheap. A creek ran under the building, making it a risky investment. The proximity of the creek, and the fact that multiple businesses shared the building, affected the pitch and layout of the floors. The sloped floors, which were never adjusted, became a familiar quirk of Carson’s Hardware. Harrison Klein’s carriage store eventually became the old Howard Hess Store, which operated in Hellertown until the 1930s. Bill Carson, then an employee of the Miller Brothers Hardware Store in Easton, entered the scene soon after. The Miller Brothers bought the 639 Main Street property and put Bill in charge of running it. Bill Carson worked as the Millers’ store manager before buying the business from them in the 1950s and opening Carson’s Hardware.

In these almost-August summer days, and with “Christmas in July” upon us, I’m reminded of the festive pre-Christmas atmosphere in Carson’s. I would always go to Carson’s with my Dad to buy cans of gasoline, but far more attractive to local children was its small toy department. The department was a popular place around Christmas time, as children would stop in to visit Carson’s very own Santa Claus and snoop around the toy selection. A large “letters to Santa Claus” mailbox was placed outside the store. Children from the area placed their letters inside the mailbox, and the Valley Voice published their wish lists. Even after Bill Carson’s son Mark took over the hardware store in 1993, the Christmas mailbox remained.  

Carson’s Hardware continued serving local residents until 2004, when it suffered catastrophic flooding from Hurricane Ivan. Though Mark Carson auctioned off the shop’s inventory and permanently closed its doors, fond memories of Carson’s Hardware are alive and well in the community. Importantly, 639 Main Street would go on to house another business that is quickly becoming a Hellertown favorite: Joe Grisafi’s Taste of Italy.

Helen Behe is an MFA candidate at DeSales University, where she is studying through the program’s poetry track for a degree in creative writing and publishing. Aside from her studies, Helen enjoys gardening, boxing and rooting for the Philadelphia Eagles. She is a resident of Bethlehem. Read more of Helen’s Then & Now series here.