Mclendon Hardware
Where are the good old hardware stores? - Best of the West - ColumnBill Crosby
There are typical hardware stores, and then there are tool temples. Such stores seemingly have everything. They're staffed by folks who really know their wares, and they've developed enough quirky personality over the years to have become destinations. Here are three such places singled out by our readers.
The tall, well-packed racks of hardware bracketing the concrete aisles at McLendon Hardware give you the sense that you're walking through a maze of canyons, never sure what you'll find around the next corner. This Renton, Washington, institution (710 S. Second Street) seemingly stocks everything; as reader Gail Grasso of Cle Elum writes: "It has items that can't be found anywhere else."
The store's stamp of authenticity, however, comes from the aroma that hits you the moment you walk through the door. A subtle blend of tools, lumber, house-building chemistry, and hardworking contractors tells you that this square city block of hardware is the real thing.
You know Clark Dye Hardware in Santa Ana, California (210 S. Main Street), isn't a chain store when you spot the table saws incongruously lined up beside the cookie jars and cut-glass serving plates. In fact, at first glance you can't even be sure that it is a hardware store. There are shelves full of classic Sunbeam toasters and heavy-duty restaurant dinnerware, but where the heck are the lug bolts and hex screws?
Just keep looking; it's all there...somewhere. (As local resident Nancy Mueller wrote to us: "If Clark Dye doesn't have it, it doesn't exist.") This is an Alice-in-Wonderland store, with doorways leading to rooms and more rooms. To find a brass fitting, meander through the builder's hardware department and back into the plumbing department. Or just ask one of the store's co-owners, Don and Arlene McLaughlin, or their son David to help you. That help is another reason that customers have searched out Clark Dye since it opened in 1946.
"Truly outrageous" is how Glenna Simms of Wheat Ridge, Colorado, describes McGuckin Hardware in nearby Boulder (2525 Arapahoe Avenue). "People come from all over to shop there," Simms writes. "Along with the usual items, they stock
merchandise you will never see anywhere else." Poking through this huge store can easily be an all-day affair if you want it to be. On the other hand, if you're in a hurry, the helpful staff can quickly lead you to whatever treasure you're seeking; Denver reader Jim Zavist praises McGuckin's "good old-fashioned service." To sign off, here's Jill Goldwater of Boulder: "If McGuckin's doesn't have it, it can't be found!" Sound familiar?
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