Baird Hardware Company Warehouse

The Baird Hardware Company was a major commercial enterprise in the Gainesville area for ninety years. Established in 1891 as E. Baird and Company, the firm employed, at its peak in the 1950's, over 100 people, stocked over 35,000 items, and grossed over $ 4 million per year through retail sales and wholesale distribution throughout North Central Florida. Its fortunes declined thereafter, and the company was liquidated in 1980.

The company was initially established as a co-partnership in 1890 or 1891 by Eberle Baird, Thomas J. Swearingen and J. R. Eddins, "for the purpose of supplying the public with hardware, stoves, tin and graniteware, house furnishing goods, etc." Baird, an Ohio native who moved to Florida in 1881, had been successfully engaged in the lumbering and sawmilling industry. Under his direction, and with the impetus of the Florida phosphate boom in the mid-1890's, the company prospered, and the Gainesville Sun reported in its December 18, 1897 issue that "The firm is enterprising, and their energy has given them prestige in supplying the phosphate plants in Alachua and Levy counties. They carry everything in the hardware line."

In April, 1900 the firm was incorporated as the Baird Hardware Co., with "plumbing, steam and gas fitting in this state or elsewhere" among its objectives. By 1905, the firm occupied two separate warehouses as well as a downtown retail outlet and warehouse. By 1910 its growing business required the construction of additional warehouse and wholesale distribution facility to serve both its retail outlets in Gainesville and other communities, and its expanding wholesale business in some twenty North Florida counties.

The site of the new warehouse was chosen specifically for its access to the major rail lines serving the community. The construction of the first railroad through the area by the Florida Railroad Company in 1859 was primarily responsible for the founding of the town of Gainesville and the relocation of the county seat to this new community. This line became a part of the Seaboard Airline Railroad in 1903. Additional rail service was provided in 1881 by the Florida Southern Railway and the Savannah, Florida and Western Railway, which later became part of the Plant System, and merged with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in 1902. The site of the new Baird warehouse was located near the crossover of the SAL and ACL main lines and was accessible by existing spurs from each which had served a major cotton gin destroyed by fire in 1907.

Baird Hardware company acquired the property for $6,000 in 1908, and built its new brick warehouse two years later.

The Company continued to thrive and to expand its operations. In 1924 its charter was amended to increase the amount of capital stock authorized from $50,000 to $200,000 and the amount of indebtedness allowable from $25,000 to $100,000, and to include automobile accessories and marine supplies among its many products lines. At this time, too, its retail facilities were substantially expanded.

Eberle Baird died in February, 1930, 12 and c. Addison Pound became President of the company two months later. Round had joined the firm in 1908, at the age of 18, and had worked his way up through the retail and wholesales ranks to become Secretary of the firm and a member of its Board of Directors in 1917 and Vice President in 1919. By 1930, he had also become a leading figure in economic and civic affairs in the community was involved in several major real estate developments and served terms as president of the Rotary Club and the Chamber of Commerce.

Bund led the Company successfully through the early years of the Depression. By 1938 sales had regained the peak levels of the mid-1920's, and the volume of business virtually doubled during World War II, with the rapid development of military training facilities and expansion of civilian communities to support them. In the post war years, the Company continued to prosper under Pond's direction, with several major modernization and expansion projects being completed between 1946 and 1954.

Much of this prosperity was due to the sale of marine supplies, particularly Mercury outboard motors. The Baird Hardware Company had been the exclusive distributor for the Johnson Outboard Motor Company in Florida form the mid 1920's until 1936 when Johnson initiated its own direct distribution to retailers. Baird then took on the Champion and Mercury lines, eventually concentrating its efforts on Mercury products. This business expanded rapidly after World War II, and in 1950, the first full railroad carload of Mercury motors was received at the Baird Hardware Warehouse in Gainesville. Throughout the 1950's, Mercury motors destined for all points in Florida passed through the Warehouse, making up a major share of the marine supply business, which in turn accounted for some 45% of the Baird Company's annual sales.

But in 1960, the Mercury Company, too, established its own direct distribution system. This meant the loss of $2.25 million annually to Baird Hardware Company. This major blow was followed by a series of less dramatic developments that adversely affected the Company. These included the development of outlying shopping malls, which hurt the firm's retail sales, and increasing competition from national chain wholesalers. As a result, the retail marine business was closed out in 1964, retail auto supply sales followed in 1966, and on April 1, 1967 all retail sales were closed down.

In the meantime, C. A. Pound, Sr. had retired, and c. A. Pound, Jr. had assumed the presidency of the Company. He believed that the firm could survive only through a major restructuring of its operations and the complete replacement of its obsolete warehouses with a single modern facility. The alternative, which he considered more prudent, was the liquidation of the Company's assets. 19 Accordingly, he supervised the gradual disposition of the various properties of the firm throughout the 1970's, and the final liquidation of its remaining inventory and fixtures in 1980. On January 1, 1981, the Baird Hardware Company ceased to exist as a corporate entity.

The Baird Hardware Company Warehouse, the only surviving building associated with the Company, was donated to the University of Florida to benefit the c. Addison Pound, Sr. and Annie C. Pound Endowment Fund in the College of Business Administration and the C. Addison Pound, Jr. Engineering Scholarship Fund. In September, 1981, the property was purchased by Akira and Associates, Ltd. for rehabilitation for adaptive reuse. Today, the building continues its active life, housing office, studio spaces, and a specialty woodworking shop. It has been renamed Baird Center, commemorating its original function and the role of Baird Hardware Company in the historic development of the community.