Inside the Tobin Arms factory:
So on Sat we went to the Light Fixture store that now occupies half of the main floor of the former Tobin Arms building.
Inside the floors have been sheeted over and are now covered with old, loose crappy carpet. The interior walls appear to have been strapped or studded, probably insulation added and then drywalled and painted. All boring. The windows, however, are the original windows. Made of the old pine framing and each consisting of 20 panes of about 1/8" glass, about 10" x 12", 4 across and 5 rows high. These glass windows are the type that were held in by glazier points and then hand puttied to weatherproof them. They have had large aluminum frame storm windows installed over them on the outside in recent years.
The most interesting part is the ceiling. Open and all original. There are several big wooden beams about 7" x 14" running crossways and held up by 7" square wooden posts about every 10ft. These wooden posts have all 4 corners chamfered on them, have many many coats of paint and hundreds of old nail holes still visible under the paint. The ceiling itself looks like about 5" tongue and groove lumber and probably about 2" thick sitting on those big old beams. That T&G lumber would also be the floor on the upper level. Nice to see that its still original. My, if those beams and boards could only talk. Image the stories, the things they have seen over the past 100 years, and probably many things they should not have seen........especially if there was a night shift running at any time.
The funny part is that the lady who ran the Fixture store was explaining to us the coding system they use for the colour of the different fixtures and was pointing up at the fixtures. We pretended to be interested and were happy to keep looking up at that grand old ceiling. Perfect.
Then the noise started. What in blazes. Is someone doing demolition; can't see anything. Is it that slow moving train outside....doesn't seem to be.
Cripes; its a step / tap dancing class upstairs. Sometimes 1, sometimes 2 and sometimes the whole class. Then the light fixtures start dancing and swinging. What a hoot.
It was a fun half hour and nice to know that the old building is still going strong and serving the community well.
If you are interested in Tobin shotguns go and have a look sometime; its part of our history.
