Photo First: Old Portland Hardware

In Sellwood, a hidden museum of a store displays a wealth of oddities, antiques, and historically significant salvage, meticulously restored and artfully curated.
Story and photos by
June 2, 2025
Culture, Photography
Bret Hodgert, keeper of the museum-like Old Portland Hardware; 2025 photo.
Bret Hodgert, keeper of the museum-like Old Portland Hardware; 2025 photo.

Bret Hodgert’s Old Portland Hardware is one of this city’s hidden museums. Situated in Sellwood just off the corner of Southeast Tacoma Street and 17th Avenue, it offers more than 10,000 square feet of oddities, antiques, and historically significant salvage. Focusing on pretty much “anything old, beautiful, odd, or exceptionally well made,” these archeological finds of yesteryear are meticulously restored and artfully curated. The photos below are a small sampling of the relics on view:

Locks & Keys, 2025

Locks & Keys at Old Portland Hardware, 2025

Historic Bas-Relief, 2025

Historic Bas-Relief at Old Portland Hardware, 2025

Wall of Whatnots, 2025

Wall of Whatnots at Old Portland Hardware, 2025

Movie Cabinet, 2025

Movie Cabinet at Old Portland Hardware, 2025.

Carved Chest, 2025

Carved Chest at Old Portland Hardware, 2025

Lantern, 2025

Lantern at Old Portland Hardware, 2025.

Sponsor

Portland Baroque Orchestra First United Methodist Church Portland Oregon

Clocks, 2025

Clocks at Old Portland Hardware, 2025.

Historic Sideboard, 2024

Dresser & Mirror, 2025

Dresser & Mirror at Old Portland Hardware, 2025.

Barrel, 2025

Barrel at Old Portland Hardware, 2025.

Urns & Lightbulb, 2025

Urns & Lightbulb at Oldm Portland Hardware, 2025.

Mechanics Insurance Co., 2025

Mechanics Insurance Co., at Old Portland Hardware, 2025.

Streetlights, 2025

Streetlights at Old Portland Hardware, 2025

Sponsor

Hallie Ford Museum of Art Willamette University, Salem Oregon

Chest & Radio, 2025

Chest & Radio at Old Portland Hardware, 2025.

K.B. Dixon’s work has appeared in numerous magazines, newspapers, and journals. His most recent collection of stories, Artifacts: Irregular Stories (Small, Medium, and Large), was published in Summer 2022. The recipient of an OAC Individual Artist Fellowship Award, he is the winner of both the Next Generation Indie Book Award and the Eric Hoffer Book Award. He is the author of seven novels: The Sum of His Syndromes, Andrew (A to Z), A Painter’s Life, The Ingram Interview, The Photo Album, Novel Ideas, and Notes as well as the essay collection Too True, Essays on Photography, and the short story collection, My Desk and I. Examples of his photographic work may be found in private collections, juried exhibitions, online galleries, and at K.B. Dixon Images.

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