Another building is undergoing a transition in downtown Altenburg.  Before I say anything about what is going on there, allow me to do what I do much better……talk about its history.

The building shown above was once owned and operated by Martin H. Mueller.  In the 1900 census, he is described as a tinner (a.k.a. tinsmith).

Here we see Martin standing in front of the Mueller store with Paul Moeckel.  It was a hardware store.  You can see the M.H. Mueller painted on the front window.  Do not get this Mueller store confused with the one that was in Wittenberg that was written about previously.

We know this photo was taken prior to 1908 because that is the year that Martin died.  Here is an advertisement that was printed during the time when Martin operated this store.

Here we see a later photo of this building which shows an expansion to the side.

I will fast forward the history of this building to the time when Oscar Bellman ran the hardware store when Rudy Mueller went off to fight in World War II.  Here is a photo of Oscar when he was about sixteen years old.

In 1945, Oscar bought the store from Rudy Mueller and it became the Bellman’s Hardware Store.  Here is a photo of that store taken during the 1940’s.

The store shown below was purchased by Mike and Karen Eidson around 1998.  By then, the storefront had been changed considerably.

That leads us up to today.  The building is currently undergoing changes.  I am not going to broadcast what will become of this building because it is veiled with a certain level of secrecy right now.  Suffice it to say that the word on the street is that it will have something to do with food.  So one could say that a building which for so long was used for home improvement will soon become an establishment more involved with home cooking.  I will also add that the folks doing the work have to go to another hardware store to get the adequate materials to get the job done.