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New era to begin at Stallman Hardware

Posted March 22, 2017 11:00 pm

By Pete Spitler Editor@heraldtrib.com

A new era begins April 1 at the corner of Swanwick and West Holmes streets in Chester.

After 49 years of business, Don and Linda Stallman have sold their hardware store - Stallman True Value Hardware - to 23-year-old Greg Rowold, of Chester.

Rowold has been an employee of the Stallmans for five years and takes over at the same age as Don did in 1968.

"I'll keep everything the way it is for awhile until we get some money in and spread out from there," Rowold said. "You've got to change all the time, but you can't go changing right off the bat."

Rowold said one of his long-term goals is to add ammunition to the store's offerings.

"When we get farther down the line, some ammunition for sporting goods and stuff like that," he said. "Not a whole lot, just some basic ammo and stuff."

Fresh out of serving in the U.S. Army, Don went to work part-time at Mahn's Ace Hardware, which was located on the former Wally's Restaurant lot near St. Mary's Church.

"I was married and my wife and I wanted to work out at the farm," Don said. "The problem was we didn't have enough farm ground to support us, my mom and dad, and we still had some brothers at home yet.

"Not enough to support three families, per se. So I had to kinda look for a little something to tide me over a little bit until we could acquire more ground to rent or something to increase the farming operations."

In April of that year, Mahn's owners indicated they were going to sell the store as a family member was moving to Florida.

"They found that it was a growing population in Florida at that time," Don said. "He said 'Hey, let's go to Florida where there's a lot more opportunity for a hardware store.'"

Don suggested to Linda that they buy the hardware store.

"She said no," Don said. "But eventually, I got her convinced to buy the hardware store, so we took over in July of '68."

In 1970, the Herschbach Building - where the hardware store currently is - became available for rent. It had housed the Index Notion Company, a dime store with its headquarters in Indiana.

"We moved up here in 1970 with kind of a bare-bones inventory," Don said. "From then on, we developed this area as a full-fledged hardware store."

Don was asked what the first couple of years in business were like.

"The first years were a lot of work, basically my wife and I did everything to make it a profitable business," he said. "It was just the two of us and a lot of hours. A lot of work and a lot of time together."

Don said he has been with True Value "for about 20 years" after Ace Hardware changed its product line to conform to a more metropolitan clientele.

"Ace Hardware, in the '80s, their merchandising was geared more to a metropolitan area," he said. "They went more to an urban setting instead of a rural setting and a lot of the merchandise that we needed, they discontinued.

"So we looked at other options to put on more rural-related merchandise and True Value had a better mix at that time."

The Stallmans will retain possession of the roughly 120-year-old Herschbach Building, which has the law offices of Fisher, Kerkhover, Coffey and Gremmels on its second floor.

Don was asked his thoughts on Rowold taking over. The store will become Rowold Hardware on April 1.

"He's very experienced," he said of Rowold. "He knows hardware. One of the main things is you have to know the nuts and bolts of hardware and he does a good job."

Don said he and Linda had been looking to sell for the past five years, but weren't in a rush to sell.

"We wanted to find a local owner," he said. "Somebody who could continue the business that we had built."

As for himself, Don said he would assist Rowold with the store and also get some projects done on the family farm.

"I've got about eight years of home projects to get done," he said. "Maybe I'll be totally retired when I'm 80."

Lastly, Stallman said he hoped the Chester community would support Rowold as much as it has supported himself.

"I stress the fact that locally-owned money made here is spent here," he said. "It doesn't leave town and you need to support all the local businesses regardless."

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