This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Lookup Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/VJF.2ACEB/84.3 Message Board Post: "Images of America, Oakmont by Vince Gagetta with Paula A Calabrese, Cheryl Zentgraf & Gary Rogers. Arcadia Publishing (pg. 8)...Early merchants John Hastings & Obadiah M. Bossert played vital supporting roles in the story of Oakmont, as did... (pg. 9)...In 1884, Obadiah M. Bossert opened a tin shop on Fourth Street, & a year later, moved it to Maryland Ave., where it soon evolved into the area's first hardware store.... pg. 16 (photo-store name "O.M. Bossert", one bearded man with hat & ?child) "Obadiah M. Bossert's hardware store at Fourth street & Maryland Ave was also, his window proclaims, a branch of the Home Protective Building & Loan Assoc. of Pa. Originally a tin shop, Bossert's was founded in 1884 & located farther down Fourth Street. The shop moved to this location a year later & eventually became a hardware store. It was the first store in Oakmont to sell radios." pg. 83 photo "Bossert's hardware store displayed the lastest gas ranges in its front window on the 1930s, along with preserved fruit & an advertising poster for ice cream. Begun as a tin shop in 1884, the business moved to this location at the corner of Fourth St. & Maryland Ave. in 1885." nice little book but not indexed. not my family