Where to Go to Get Rare Fittings in Baltimore

Gordo

Where does one to go to find a 2" counter-sunk plug with a left-hand thread?



Or a 4-1/2" cast iron ell?



Or a 8" by 1" by 6" tee?



Where indeed.



Let's back up a minute.  Baltimore, MD is a, correction, was a shipbuilding, iron producing blue-collar town.  One of it's main streets, called Charles Street, runs due North/South.  It bi-sects the town into East and West on the map (Baltimore St. is the demarcation between North and South).  Let's get on Charles Street and head South until you are stopped by the railroad tracks, just before some water.  There, in a nondescript warehouse is an establishment named "Pratt Thompson." 



This is the end of the line in many senses of that phrase.



This is where fittings go to die.  This is the fitting museum.



This is the Last Bastion of the American Fitting. 



It is a place where it is always Nov. 21, 1963.



The bins you see pictured are old McCormick Spice Tea boxes.  They still have traces of the tin lining in them.

meplumber

Great Stuff Gordo

We have a supply source up here like that. Completely unchanged since the 60's. If it is old and you need it you can probably find it there. It might be covered in 3" of dust, but it is there.



What will we do when these places are gone?

Gordo

A Poignant Question

"What will we do when these places are gone?"



As long as there is a demand, a market if you will, for these sorts of places, I guess they'll be there too.  Sort of.



When we fade away, they will too.



Here is another picture.  Pause and remember.

EddieG

A wonderful place!!!!

I haven't had the pleasure of visiting them, however I have ordered things over the years. Thanks to Steamhead, letting me know they are the place to go to for the unusual things. The kind of things that the usual counter guy looks at you like you have 3 heads, when you ask for a specialty item. A wonderful place indeed!

Ex Maine Doug

The rest of the story

What you can't find at Thompson might be in Steamhead's basement or van.