A Bangor hardware store has permanently closed its doors after more than 70 years in business following the death of its owner earlier this year.
Fairmount Hardware closed in the wake of store owner Sheldon Hartstone’s death on Jan. 8 at 90 years old. His children have since decided to permanently close the store, his brother Fred Hartstone told the Bangor Daily News on Wednesday.
The building is in the process of being sold, Fred Hartstone said.
The hardware store on Hammond Street was one of the city’s longest operating businesses, dating back to when the Hartstones’ father opened it in 1952. Sheldon, Fred and their siblings grew up helping at the store before Sheldon took it over, Fred Hartstone said.
“I’d like to have my brother back, but in the same token, I’m gratified by the amount of people that showed respect of Sheldon,” Fred Hartstone said.
The business got competitive when national chain stores moved into town, he said. They had to work hard to compete but Sheldon would always put out a hand to help a customer.
If Sheldon didn’t know something, he would call and ask for help from Fred, his younger brother who operated his own hardware store for years.
“If he was still alive today I would help him in any way,” Fred Hartstone said. “I wish he was back because he was my brother, but he was also a friend.”
Sheldon Hartstone was a staple of the community, friend Susan Stephenson told the BDN after his death.
Stephenson knew Sheldon Hartstone since she was a little girl. She owns the Corner Store at 575 Hammond St., which is next door to the hardware store. She bought the store from her father, Jonathan “Gabby” Price.
“Sheldon is a staple of the community,” Stephenson said. “He was quirky and funny and loyal and someone you just wanted to know and be around.”
Sheldon Hartstone was a creature of habit who made daily visits to the store, a highlight of the day for the employees, she said. His sense of humor and sarcasm will be dearly missed.
The routine he kept and interacting with the community was a way to help keep the memory of his wife, Valerie Hawkins, alive, Stephenson said. Hawkins died in 2001.
“He missed her every day,” Stephenson said.
Local business owner and politician Dan Tremble remembers going to Fairmont Hardware as a kid when his parents remodeled their bathroom, he told the BDN following Sheldon Hartstone’s death. Now Tremble owns Fairmount Market, which is about two blocks down the road from the hardware store.
“He really cared about people,” Tremble said of Sheldon Hartstone. “When people had losses in their family or life he was quick to reach out to people.”
Sheldon Hartstone was passionate about sports, especially Bangor high school basketball, Tremble said. He was a team manager when he was in high school in the 1950s, during the tenure of legendary coach Red Barry.
In the decades after, Sheldon Hartstone helped establish the Red Barry Foundation Scholarship, an annual award to a Bangor senior who lives up to Barry’s standards for academic and athletic achievement, Tremble said.
Sheldon Hartstone also developed apartments and commercial properties around Bangor. He liked finding things to bring to the area to help improve Bangor, Tremble said.
