Dating from 1865, the Elderfield-Hartshorn Hardware was a prominent historic business in  Niagra Falls and was considered the cornerstone of the downtown area in the early to mid 20th century. The store occupied the ground floor of a "magnificent" six-story building,40-44 Falls Street at First Street (northwest corner of Falls and First) that was known as "the Elderfield." The building was featured on 2-cent postage covers in 1922 and 1932 . Eldefield-Hartshorn advertised "If it's hardware we have it."  It was indeed said the store had every known piece of hardware--every nail. bolt. and screw--and if they didn't have it It didn't exist. One former customer exclaimed:  "I loved the store. I have judged all hardware stores by it for the last 75 years or so,"   The abundance of merchandise required floor-to-ceiling shelving and the owners installed tall rolling library style ladders to facilitate clerks' access lofty stored items, or as one observer put it "to get thing a ma bobs from high up drawers."  The store had an "amazing" relay system similar to the drive through vacuum system of banks.  A "cool 'cable car'" was used to take money to a central location to make change. The Elderfield was demolished in 1975 under the guise of urban renewal. Such seems not to have been the case.  "A lot of people walked away with money," a critic remarked, "and nothing of worth was built."   By 1977 most of downtown was gone and with its demise the loss of the city's character. The site of the "Elderfeld" became part of a glass-enclosed walkway for a hotel.