Post Office demolished
Harwood gathering place, post office
demolished
By E.B. FURGURSON III, Staff Writer
April 2006
With several well-placed lunges by the bucket and jaw of an excavator, a bit of Harwood history was torn down this week.
Demolition of the old Kolb's Store, for years
a gathering place for farm families and later a
post office and an antique store, marked a
beginning too. A 12-pump gas station and
convenience store, and a new post office for the
community, will rise in its place at the
intersection of Route 2 and Harwood Road.
"I used to go in there when I was this
high, with my dad," said Bernard Skarzynski Jr.,
who grew up on nearby Polling House Road. "Mr.
Kolb used to give us a bag of penny candy. Boy,
was it good."
He and a handful of others watched as a
Daewoo 220 excavator, operated by Todd
Richardson of Donald Excavating, pulled down the
building in one brutish stroke, then nimbly
plucked a piece of sheet metal, then a rectangle
of old pressed-tin ceiling, from the growing
pile of rubble, and swiveled to drop them into
the metal pile.
"One winter we were out of school for
three weeks, I think," Mr. Skarzynski said. "We
walked up here to the store ... Everybody did."
Kolb's was a typical country store of its
era, selling everything from harness and
crackers to feed and kerosene.
"No more feed, but maybe a few carrots,"
said Jason Riel of North Beach, who will be the
manager of the new store. "It is time for some
new history," he added.
The site, bought by a subsidiary of
Annapolis-based Eastern Petroleum, will become a
Citgo station, car wash and convenience store
called Harwood Market.
It will also preserve the post office,
leasing to the U.S. Postal Service. Until the
space is ready, the post office is in temporary
quarters down Route 2 near the Lothian traffic
circle.
Mr. Riel isn't ignoring the past, though.
He watched the demolition while holding a
homemade weather vane plucked carefully from the
peak of the old building's roof.
"Looks like they made it in the old
machine shop across the street," Mr. Skarzynski
said looking at the hand-snipped tin letters -
N, E, S and W - on the four-spoked vane.
Its base was spot-welded to the iron pipe
shaft. A couple of coats of flashing tar farther
up the shaft prevented it from spinning years
ago, but probably stopped any leaks.
It took builder Ken Muller close to two
years to get permits from the county to begin
building.
"I got my permits and it's time to move
forward," he said.
He said if all goes according to plan the
building should be done by December. He'll try
to get the old weather vane back in working
order and put it on the roof of the new
building.
"If not, we will display it inside," he
said.
After community residents worried aloud
about the potential demise of their post office,
Mr. Muller relented and created a space for the
post office that served as an informal community
gathering place, much like the old store.
Harwood Civic Association President Mike
Lofton drove by Tuesday afternoon to see the
building mostly torn down.
"It took my breath away," he said. " Its
was sort of like an old animal that gets too old
and is put down ... It was just sad. I did not
like it."
But like Mr. Riel, he looked toward the
future.
"As long as we get our post office and
the gas station is reasonably compatible with
Harwood," he said, "I will be happy."