By Lori EhdeThe 110-year-old building that housed the Adrian Hardware Store burned to the ground Sunday.The blaze not only left the small community without the services of the business, but it drastically changed the look of its downtown district.Karen Lyons lives in the block behind what used to be a stately, brick-front two-story structure. "It’s weird," she said. "You look out the front door now and you can see the stores all the way across the street."Before the turn of the century, the building was the largest establishment in Nobles County, according to local historians.Lyons empathized with East Coast residents who lost the Twin Towers in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks."The look of the whole neighborhood has changed," Lyons said.Appearances aside, the long-term effect of the fire is that the town is now without its hardware store."I can’t go across the street to get incidentals anymore," Lyons said, adding that she also relied on the business for household maintenance like furnace and sewer work."Those guys were a great help," she said. "Now where am I going to go when I need something done?"She said the site was still smoking as of Tuesday afternoon, and the neighborhood was still relying on generators for electricity.Except for one room in her house, she said smoke wasn’t damaging. "We were pretty lucky," she said. "It could have been a lot worse. We just did some air fresheners."The Adrian Fire Department responded to the call around 12:30 p.m. Sunday, and soon after that mutual aid was requested from departments in Luverne, Ellsworth, Rushmore and Worthington.Crews worked through the night to fight the blaze and were still on the scene Monday afternoon.Two city blocks were closed to traffic, as the building spilled onto the street taking power lines with it.Adrian Hardware Store was operated by Wes and Rose Henricksen, and the historic building was owned by Virgil and Mary Schutz.State Fire Marshal Steve Kellen is investigating the fire, but a cause has not yet been determined.