Van Horne Hardware - which has sold paint, copied keys and supplied all your fix-it needs since Max Schneiderman opened the place near Victoria and Van Horne in 1955 - has closed.Co-owner Karen Lukacs tells Coolopolis that the store was a lifelong setting.
"I worked here from the time I could walk. I spent my weekends and summers here growing up. It was a great experience,” she said.
She bears no regrets about locking up for the final time. “It's not sad for us, we're excited, looking forward to our future.”
Lukacs said that business is fine but retirement beckons. She and her husband are moving to Windsor to be near their daughter, a physician assistant in Detroit.
The extended Schneiderman family opened several hardware stores speckled around town in decades past, including one on
St. Viateur bagel that was eventually turned into a health food shop by a nephew.
Karen wasn't planning to take her father's store over. But that changed when her mother died about five years after Karen graduated as an account.
So in 1980 her father Max – who died in 2002 - said that he would close up shop unless she took it over.
So Karen left accounting and ran the place with her engineer husband.The store was originally located at 5950 Victoria, just a stone's toss away but has been in its current digs since about 1965.
Mom and pop hardware stores have been closing at a fast clip since the arrival of big box stores but the clientele has always been a loyal bunch and have been very supportive of their decision to close.
“People have been great, they're hugging us and giving us gifts for our daughter,” she said.
Stores of this type, having been in business for decades and therefore understanding their customers' needs, always seemed to have items which the big box outlets like Canadian Tire and Rona didn't stock.
ReplyDeleteWhen my air conditioner required a new strip of foam filtering for which I wasted time looking everywhere else first, Van Horne Hardware did have it.
I also remember Queen Mary Hardware that had been in business for many years and was later taken over by Rona which itself closed not very long afterwards.
Such valuable places will be missed.
Years ago there was a hardward, one of many, on Sherbrooke near the Woolworths, the latter which had gas light fixtures still in place.
ReplyDeleteThere was also a bike shop named McQuinnies?? and a Queens Printer near by towards the Kent Theater.
The hardware had a wood floor which creaked and had everthing under the sun in it's wares
Smelled exotict, also, w/paints, Varsols and turpentines, rope and Linseed oil.
Just like Christmas to see inside, much like Canadian Tire today.
As I recall, the first CT in Montreal and Quebec?? was way over on Jean Talon c. 1956.
When the CSL Shopping Centre opened in 1956, it was all outdoor. The enclosed Mall came later.
It had a Steinberg's, the other one @ Walkley and Somerled the first in the area c. 1951, and at CSL, a Handy Andy Hardwear.
I worked at a Ma and Pa Grocery for a while, stamped prices and drove the delivery truck and moved stock up and down, a slide into the basement off Sherbrooke @ Decarie.
Crates of drinks and beer were carried back up the stairs, tho' to the coolers.
The Police then had a lax arrangement when on Patrol and would stop in and meet in the rear for a beer.
One QT stop with the truck was at the Police/Fire station up the hill w/goodies.
They then would not see when the truck was parked briefly during evening rush hour for loading, making the 105 have to swing side.
1963 Ford truck, 6 Cyl. Three on the Tree.
Thank You.
McWhinnies Bicyle Shop still exists:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bicyclesmcw.com/en/page/company
Those neighbourhood grocery stores were sometimes called "variety" or "varietés"--which years later reverted to depanneur: a word which itself has different meanings. (Are they called depanneurs in France or Belgium?).
What sticks firmly in my mind was Molson's annual stack of Montreal Canadiens team colour photos--including the trophies--that the grocery stores gave away FREE to customers. You could even walk away with a handful of them, as I recall!
Those team photos are collectors items today! Decades later, I sold a few of my duplicates to a flea market sports collector for a neat profit, but refused to sell those for the seasons '59-'60, '61-'62, '62-'63, '64-'65.
Not sure why Molson ceased making the team photos. You would think they would be continued by another sponsor, but I imagine they would no longer be given away!
OT, but is there a blogger.com setting so that this comments page doesn't automatically rapid scroll down to where the 'Leave your comment' box is?
ReplyDeleteIn the past it's caused me to think there were no comments on some of the articles.