VOORHEESVILLE — Anyone with a fond memory of Smith’s Tavern in Voorheesville was invited in this week to buy and take home a piece of a community cultural landmark, just after it shut down.

The two-day sale was advertised with a few simple signs outside. Many people didn’t need the prompts. They already knew that the beginning of the end of John Mellon’s and Jon McClelland’s meal-and-meeting hub was underway.

Tuesday’s rain might have discouraged some from showing up, but others were eager. “They’re on a mission,” McClelland said.

Inside, floors and tables were stacked with pieces of a place where the community flocked for decades. Chairs, plates, silverware, pots, pans, signs.

Pizza trays, small and large, were $3 apiece. Some visitors zeroed in on the napkin dispensers as a suitable memento.

Bud Geel of Rensselaerville, who was browsing Tuesday afternoon, wasn’t sure what he wanted — just something.

“If nothing else, a pint glass with our name on it,” McClelland suggested to him.

Geel said he started coming to Smitty’s, as everyone knows it, 30 or 40 years ago. He spent a good deal of time there while working nearby for the state Department of Transportation, which has an office in Voorheesville. Geel retired after 35 years there.

Smith’s Tavern opened in 1946. McClelland and Mellon bought it in 1991. They are selling the property to Stewart’s Shops, which hopes to open a branch at that spot, in place of one on South Main Street.

Like Geel, others who stopped in this week had trouble believing that Smitty’s was no more.

“I’d like somebody to buy the building and move it,” said Robin Goetz Shufelt, who came by for some nostalgia.

She figured she started coming to Smitty’s in 1960. The tavern has long been the obvious gathering place, a staple for reunions of all sorts.

If you were returning to Voorheesville to catch up with friends, “everyone knew that you could come here the night before Thanksgiving ...,” she said. “You never knew who you were going to run into.”

Shufelt — who grew up in Voorheesville, then lived in New Salem for 40 years before moving back — bought two chairs, two pizza pans, and a napkin holder.

Then, she wandered around more and picked up a clock that interested her. After some brief negotiating, she had paid for another piece of Smitty’s to take home.

One frequent question as part of the sale was: What about the trains? They were as much a part of Smitty’s as the pizza.

McClelland said the trains will be sold separately, after they’re appraised.

A few days earlier, in its waning days in operation, Smitty’s was packed. The last night it was open was Saturday.

Shufelt said she was part of a group of 11 people from the New Salem Volunteer Fire Department Ladies Auxiliary who wanted to help close down the place. But it was too busy; after a half hour, they still couldn’t get a table, so they left and ordered some takeout pizza elsewhere.

McClelland said the very end caught him and Mellon a little off guard. They didn’t account for generations past, from before they owned Smitty’s, coming back one last time.