Ray's Hardware and Supply

The next building houses Ray's Hardware and Supply, which began in 1959 and is still in business today.

   1966 Friscola Yearbook ad   

  October 2010  

   Back door of "main building" May 1965   

  October 2010  

Ronnie Ray, son of founder Roy Ray, describes the growth of the store into adjacent buildings.

 Post-remodeling and eexpansion 1976 

   October 2010   

 Interior, late 1970s. Pictured from left to right are Roy Ray (father), Vince Ray, and Ronnie Ray. 

 October 2010 Ronnie Ray is the only surviving member of the trio. 

Ray names a few of the businesses the adjacent buildings housed prior to the hardware store's expansion.

A mid-1950s photograph shows Admiral Byrd's service station  to the left of the original Ray's Hardware building and the white-fronted "dime store" Ray mentions to the right: the Ben Franklin Store.

The two small buildings on the far side of the Ben Franklin Store are now 1) a storage facility for Ray's Hardware and 2) two hair-styling shops.

Through 51 years in operation, Ray's Hardware has had to change its lines of mercandise to adapt to the changing needs of more mobile, but still relatively rural, customers.

Ray's Hardware has long been a fixture on the northwest corner of town, and, by all indications, its prospects for remaining so seem bright.