The last great store in Schenectady to carry just about everything was Wallace Armer Hardware, which gracefully closed its doors about 20 years ago. But Armer was clearly descended from a long tradition of general stores in canal towns that carried a little bit of everything. In the case of James Walker’s store on State Street in 1862, that everything ranged from groceries to agricultural implements, house furnishing goods to wood and willow ware, rope, twine and cordage, coal oil and lamps, bird cages, fishing tackle, brushes, and who knows what else.
