“We wear those floors almost like a badge of honor,”
December 21, 2019 8:51 PM   Subscribe

Community Plumbing - How the hardware store orders things, neighborhoods, and material worlds. Shannon Mattern
posted by the man of twists and turns (9 comments total) 17 users marked this as a favorite
 
I have never lusted after a piece of art as much as I have for that hammerhead shark painting set amidst the tools! Made me smile so hard to see it.

A great reminder to head into our local independent hardware store. I’ve had ones as charming as Crest Hardware and though ours now is set in the dull setting in the same parking lot as a Kohl’s and Target, it really is a gem and we’re lucky to have one. It did make our reluctant move to the suburbs of Portland, OR (due to being priced out of the city) a more welcoming affair. Hardware stores do offer an anchor.

I also didn’t know some early libraries started inside hardware stores!
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 10:12 PM on December 21, 2019 [5 favorites]


Super interesting article! I love a good hardware store. The homogenization of these establishments into big box warehouses is a sad development.
posted by St. Oops at 10:18 PM on December 21, 2019


Great article. There is a general store / hardware store in Katonah, NY that I often just walk around and talk to the staff with no goal in mind.
posted by AugustWest at 12:02 AM on December 22, 2019


A good independent stationery store has a similar appeal, I think. There's the same sense of exploring a meticulously-organised Aladdin's Cave, its tiny treasures wrapped snugly around you to fill every last inch of the available space.
posted by Paul Slade at 8:44 AM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]


Great story, great store. We hardly have such stores anymore; it's almost all big franchises these days. Every store looks the same. And there's a thing I hate with a passion: the tendency to store things by brand, not function.
I don't go to the store thinking 'I need something made by Stanley, and I don't care much what it is.' I go to the store thinking 'I need a good, non-flimsy paint scraper with a retractable blade that can be replaced when it gets dull'.
Yes, Stanley makes those, but who cares about who makes them? I just want to buy one.
posted by Too-Ticky at 9:49 AM on December 22, 2019 [1 favorite]


God I love a good hardware store! When I was a renter (and moved frequently) there was a True Value store on 9th and Ogden in Denver that had anything/everything one might need after a move. Shower curtain rings? Check. Stopper for the kitchen sink? Check. Picture hanging wire? Check. Someone who could help you figure out how to fix the clothes rail in your closet? Check.
Thank goodness Seattle still has that most magical hardware store ever - Hardwick’s.
posted by dbmcd at 11:39 AM on December 22, 2019


Portland is unusually blessed with some awesome hardware stores, from the deep inventory of Winks, to the prescient inventory of Ankeny Hardware (the only place in town that never sells out of snow shovels), to the antiquarians at Hippo Hardware (yes, as seen on Jackass) or Rejuvenation Hardware (now owned by Williams Sonoma)

Your town probably has some good ones too.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 12:44 PM on December 22, 2019 [2 favorites]


Great piece.

Worked in a hardware store in high school and it was one of the best jobs I've ever had. Learned how to cut keys, glass, mix paint, refinish furniture and learned basic plumbing and electrical skills from all the old guys - mostly WWII vets - now deceased.

Frager's Hardware here in DC was chaos writ large - crammed into a space in SE DC near the Capitol.

It. Had. Everything.

The staff possessed esoteric skills and wizardry with all the non-standard weirdness that goes into maintaining old homes. They were good about teaching you to fish instead of giving you a fish, y'know?

It was multilevel, not always well-lit, and sometimes you had to go into the attic to get what you wanted. The aisles were impossibly narrow and crammed with....everything. I simply cannot express the sheer state of....variety...of stuff they had.

It burned in 2013, I think and it was really sad to see. It has since reconstituted in a couple of other locations, and it's more like current hardware stores, but nothing will ever top that amazing, intricate, fascinating mess that was the location on Pennsylvania Ave.
posted by Thistledown at 4:40 AM on December 23, 2019


Shout-out to Page Hardware in Guilford, CT.

They have at least one of everything, and the staff are super-helpful and super-knowledgeable. ❤️
posted by ZenMasterThis at 6:17 AM on December 25, 2019


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