Sometimes when you tear away bricks and mortar, you discover a window to the past. That’s what happened in downtown Tallahassee, where demolition of the one-time county library has uncovered a decades-old storefront window — that a developer now hopes to incorporate in a new condominium project.
The project is The Tennyson, a 14-story complex of retail shops and condominium apartments going up on the east side of the 100 block of North Monroe Street. Last month, several old buildings on the site — including one that served as the Leon County Public Library from 1962 to 1978 — were torn down to make way for the new construction.
But demolition revealed the long-unseen south side of an ornate brick building on the corner of Monroe and East Call Street — and its ceiling-to-ground plate-glass window with “Chas. Williams Hardware Co., Mill Supplies” in gold-leaf lettering.
Though the window and building are not an official historic landmark, they date back more than 80 years. Tallahassee-raised baby boomers will remember the building best as the longtime Little Folks toy store. Today, the building is one of three that were fused 20 years ago into the law offices of prominent lawyer Dexter Douglass.