Interview: Old Forge Hardware’s founder Moses Cohen

On May 10, 1922, the Old Forge Hardware store built by Moses Cohen burned to the ground. Today, that year is engraved under the Cohen name on the façade of the present store.

After three days, the fire was still burning coal, construction materials and other debris and would smolder for days to come.

But Moses Cohen continued to operate, securing office room in the Givens Block and permission from Old Forge Village to put in shelves and stock up the Fire Hall (today’s Nathan’s Bakery) as fast as trucks could deliver the goods.

In 1923, his rebuilt store sold everything from “paints, bath tubs and up to the best in parlor suites.”

A year after the fire, the Utica Daily Press interviewed Mr. Cohen in an article titled “Moses Cohen’s Story of Struggle to Top” as the current store was being completed.

Though the copy is barely legible and hampered my transcription, I thought this early story about his beginnings in Old Forge a worthy note to the town’s early history and how one man overcame ethnic prejudice with sound business practices.

Except for my parenthetical historical notes, the information is directly from the article.

The reporter told of Mr. Cohen’s life before Old Forge. Continue reading →