Fordham building now home to a different sort of stuff.

By LOLITA HUCKABY
BEAUFORT TODAY

You still can sit on a decorative bench at the corner of Bay and Carteret Streets in downtown Beaufort and watch the traffic go by. You can still buy a rice steamer or get a house key cut inside at what was once Fordham Hardware.

But it’s Fordham Market now and, boy, has the merchandise changed.

It was four years ago this month that the former hardware store reopened its doors as a vendors’ market and property owner Duncan Fordham said recently he’s pleased with the results.

“When we made the decision to close the hardware store, after 50 in the business, we weren’t sure what we would do with the building,” Fordham said. “The idea of a vendors’ market, where folks could bring in their art and crafts, was presented and we decided to give it a try.”

Today, 32 vendors have rented spaces within the 200-square-foot first floor. The day-to-day operations are handled by Jackie Rutland, who worked in the building when it was a hardware store, and Elayne Scott, former owner of the Red Piano Gallery on St. Helena Island.

“I couldn’t imagine working anywhere else,” Rutland said. “I get to see folks who used to shop at Fordham Hardware as well as the tourists who wander in off the street, looking for something unusual.”

And “something unusual” they can find.
There are items for sale from doggie clothing to Lowcountry paintings to bird feeders to Chinese straw designs. There’s handcrafted jewelry and accessory items, salted nuts to seashell wall decorations.

“Having the market to sell my seashells allows me to be at home, doing what I do – working with a glue gun,” said Mary McGarraugh who owns Mary’s Cottage Creations.

McGarraugh moved to the Lowcountry from Nebraska and considered relocating in Charleston, to be near the craft centers there.

“But when we saw Beaufort, we fell in love with the place and knew this was where I should be to sell my work,” she said.

Because the market staff handles sales for the vendors, that gives the artists time to produce their work and travel to art shows, if that’s what they wish.

Hugh Wayne, a potter formerly from St. Simons’ Island but now a resident of Port Royal, said he travels from Georgia to North Carolina attending festivals and art shows.

“But I’ve been a tenant of this market for three years and it works well for my schedule,” he said.

Gini Steele specializes in old postcards of the Lowcountry, which she’s had for sale in the market almost since it opened.

Beaufort County Councilwoman Laura Von Harten sells her mermaid art work from another stall along with Third World collection pieces.

“Working with the staff in the market allows me a flexible schedule which I need to do other things as well,” Von Harten said.

One of the great things about the market is that it helps local artists make money locally and to spend that money locally, said Scott.

“There’s a lot of economic vibrance going on here,” she added.

Landscape painter Mac Rogers summed up the attitude of most of the vendors about the importance of being in Beaufort’s downtown area.

“Bay Street is the essence of Beaufort,” he said.
“If there’s a tourist on Bay Street, they’re going to come in this store and check it out,” added painter Ellen Long.