The Paint Spot, Do-It-Yourself Decorator Haven
October 4, 1954, Ames Daily Tribune
The Paint Spot, located at 215 Fifth street, is one of Ames' newer businesses, speaking in terms of years of service to Ames citizens. The name, the Paint Spot, does a beautiful job of describing the type of business, for they handle paints, wall papers, floor coverings, decorating materials in copious quantities as well as sign writers paints and supplies. Next door is the Recreation Center, a pool hall and lunch spot.
The business was started back in 1951 by a couple of Marshalltown men who were already in a similar business in that city. They were Melvin Finkle and Jim Moehrl. They operated the business through a local manager E.H. (Ed) Buchwald, then about the first of this year sold the business to L.C. Ankrum. Ankrum, who had spent many years farming near Readlyn is active in the business, but Buchwald was retained as manager.
Ed Buchwald, manager Mrs. Willadeen Barton, head of wallpaper department
Buchwald, who started on a career as a painter, spent some ten years as head of the paint shop of the Lenox Furnace company in Marshalltown. He also spent a similar period as a traveling salesman, selling industrial finishes. All of that experience in addition to several years in the retail end of the paint business fits him unusually well for the job he now holds, where his advice is frequently sought by do-it-yourself decorators. Mr. and Mrs. Buchwald and their daughter Barbara, a student in Central Junior High, live at 220 East 9th street.
L. C. Ankrum, owner
A few minutes spent browsing around the Paint Spot will make one feel like he has just leafed through a popular homemakers magazine, for almost every brand name one sees is that of a nationally advertised product. One of the most prominent names in the paint department is that of Glidden's Spred Satin. Spred Satin was the original water base paint to employ the use of latex rubber. Its rapid rise to popularity with the do-it-yourself painter is easily explained in that it dries quickly and evenly, and mighty important to the novice is that splatter spots can be easily wiped up with a damp cloth. The wide range of colors and tints available possibly explains why now about 62 per cent of all paints used is applied by the individual himself . . . or herself.
The wallpaper department at the Paint Spot would set the average housewife into a redecorating frenzy. Here the big names you find are Nancy Warren, Enterprize and United. Many of the wallpaper patterns are available with either matching or contrasting curtain and slip cover materials. Incidentally, if you like, the drapes of slip covers can be had ready-made . . . or you can buy the materials and do-it-yourself. Mrs. Willadeen Barton, who assists you in the wallpaper and drapery department, says that a very high percentage of wallpaper used today is being applied by the housewife.
The Paint Spot also stocks a supply of drapery rods and metal cornice boards.
In the floor coverings department, stress is put on linoleum as the ideal covering for the kitchen and bathroom floors. Wayne Purvis, who has been in the business for ten years, does the linoleum laying for the Paint Spot. He also handles the installation of linoleum wall coverings and plastic, metal or linoleum table tops. Miraplas, a styrene plastic tile that is guaranteed for the life of the wall itself.
Picture framing is another of the many Pain Spot services. You select the frame material, and they will build the frame, or they will sell you the molding and you can do-it-yourself.
The do-it-yourselfer can have a field day at the Paint Shop. They'll help you with advice and ideas as well as supplying your needs in materials, and as a special service to you they have many pieces of equipment that they will rent to you. Such items as wallpaper steamers, floor sanders, hand sanders and wax polishers are available on a rental basis.
Ed Coe Seeds had operated from this building at 215 Fifth Street until 1941. Irvine Paint was the tenant from 1941 until 1946, when that business moved across the street to 214 Fifth Street. The building was then occupied by Puffet Plumbing.
The Paint Spot's grand opening was held March 30 and 31 of 1951. In 1957, the business name changed to Strand's Paint Spot, and after the following year, was known simply as Strand Paint until 1986 or so.
Although Linda Glantz Interior Decorators and Designers operated from the site for a few years in the late 1980s, the building was largely vacant until it was razed in 2006 to prepare for future expansion of the Ames Public Library.
