Plans to redo former Deuel’s building unfold

PINE PLAINS — In the years since its hardware business closed in Pine Plains, the former Deuel’s Home Center building has been sitting vacant at 7723 South Main St., waiting to be restored to its former glory. Having admired the building, its history and its structural integrity for many years, Christopher Gumprecht, a resident of Manhattan, made an offer on the building just a few months ago, and while his plans for the its future are still in their infancy, he looks forward to seeing the building in working order once more.

As published under the “Gone Forever” section of the Little Nine Partners Historical Society’s (LNPHS) website at www.lnphs.com/gone-forever, the former Deuel’s building was originally located by the Poughkeepsie and Eastern Railroad yard and constructed to be used as a combined public hall and roller skating rink. The LNPHS also identified the building as one of the first skating rinks in the area while the Stissing Center was held upstairs. 

Longtime residents of the area may fondly reminisce about the days when they could skate for 10 cents a person on the rink’s maple floor. Following the roller rink’s closure, Samuel Deuel, the owner of a nearby coal and feed business, purchased the building in 1908 to be used for storage, as a cooperage for apple barrel making and to be rented out on occasion for public dances, according to the historical society. Between 1918 and 1919, the building was moved in sections to its current location on South Main Street.

Recognized as a real hometown store in Pine Plains, residents could almost always satisfy their hardware needs with a trip to Deuel’s, whether they were looking for building supplies, animal feed, paint supplies, lawn and garden supplies or other like materials. When the business closed in January of 2016, the town continued to use the building to hold local events, including public auctions.

Though he hails from the city, Gumprecht said his family has been coming up to the local area for a long time. In all the years he’s driven by the Deuel’s building, Gumprecht said he always wanted to own the space.

“It’s got a lot of history,” Gumprecht effused. “It’s such a huge space; it has a lot of notoriety in Pine Plains… It’s a sound place, it’s a good location, it’s the gatekeeper to Pine Plains if you’re coming from the south.”

After checking in with Joan Taylor, the building’s previous owner, over the years to ask about the building’s status, Gumprecht formally made her an offer a few months ago, though he preferred not to disclose the amount.

“I used to be a customer there and now I’m the owner,” Gumprecht remarked, “so now the tables have turned.”

Though he’s currently in the early stages of sketching out the building’s future, Gumprecht said his goal is to renovate the building and its various components, such as the way station, to restore it to its original working order. Looking down the road, he aspires to create a retail space that the town can use, to have the building become something he would find useful.

“I can’t say what it will definitely be, but it will be good retail space,” he said. “I think it has a lot of potential for a lot of different things. For me, what I think is important is not to get ahead of myself. I love the space, so I want to love the process of rebuilding and renovating it. It’s a place I want to be involved with day to day.”

“It’s a great thing for the town,” said Pine Plains town Supervisor Darrah Cloud. “Whatever happens in there will not only save the building but be yet another exciting development in our revitalization.”

“I’m very pleased that somebody has bought it who’s excited to do something that will benefit the town,” former owner Joan Taylor said..