On a recent visit at the Lebanon Town Office, I spied a small bookcase that has always been back to the wall in the Selectmen's Office.
Now that the wall is gone, I had the opportunity to see the BACK of the bookcase, and LOOK what I found!! A small, very old, paper tag still affixed to the back of the bookcase.
Someone has painted it a horrific cross between bright pink and brick red (yes, it's that ugly), but with the right restoration, this piece could be a showpiece for the Town of Lebanon!!!
Read on to see WHY.....
Tag on the back of an open front bookcase located at the Lebanon Town Office
January 12, 2016
Woodward & Lothrop was a department store chain headquartered in Washington, D.C.
Woodward & Lothrop was Washington, D.C.'s first department store, opening in 1887. Woodies, as it was often nicknamed, maintained stores in the Mid-Atlantic United States. Its flagship store was a fixture of the shopping district in downtown Washington, and in the late 1990s the center of controversy over competing visions for DC's urban renewal.
The Grand Rapids Fancy Furniture Company in 1908. The company went out of business in 1938.
Pacific Galleries in Seattle, Washington sold a Grand Rapids Fancy Furniture Company open bookcase with the original affixed paper label, and the top shelf carrying a book stop around three sides at each end (circa late 19th century to early 20th century; 43" in width, 13" in diameter and 54.75" in height) for $675 in November of 2008.
I'm sure that the example above was not painted an obnoxious color, but it's very interesting that a little bookcase sitting in the Board of Selectmen's Office and unprotected during construction could hold so much history and potential value.
Of course Lebanon Maine Truth Seekers has alerted several people in the Town Office to it's worth and hopefully they will move it somewhere a bit more protected and ensure the integrity of that original paper tag on it's backside!!!
