After decades of caring customer service and offering a home away from home in the realm of anyone’s hardware needs, the store is closing its doors. The total liquidation sale which started Thursday, will continue for the next nine weeks or until the store is completely cleared out.

Officially opened in 1966 by its original owner, Sam Walker, Walker’s Hardware Store has been an iconic staple in Clinton County for anything hardware and tool related.

The original hardware store was actually in the front, contrasting the known location in the back part of the building today.

The older generation from the area might say that it was the original location of the hardware store. It wasn’t until the ’72 flood when Walker closed the original store and moved into the back storage part, which is now the main building.

CHASE BOTTORF/THE EXPRESS Above, from left, Ben, Mary-Beth, and Tom Shortledge stand in front of Walker’s Hardware. At top, shoppers come to check out some of the close-out sales.

As time passed, a new owner eventually took up the helm in 1995 by way of Tom Shortledge, an honest hard worker who has been a friend and companion to the entire community of Lock Haven and beyond for decades. Shortledge sadly passed away unexpectedly in December of 2019, leaving the legacy of his hardware store to his wife, Cathy, and his three children, Mary Beth, Tom, and Ben.

“It was my father’s dream to run this place. He had worked here in his twenties for Sam Walker and had mentioned to the Walkers that if the place was ever up for sale, he would be interested. Sam eventually handed it down to his daughter and her husband, Jackie and Bill Smith. Then when they were ready to retire, our father got a hold of them and did everything he could to buy it,” reflected Ben. “He loved it here and I feel that it was perfect for him. I always thought of it being like ‘Cheers’ in this store, everyone knowing your name and all.”

Despite the struggle to keep the store a float after Tom’s passing, the Shortledge family tried everything they could to keep the store up and running. From moving back home from out of state, and tackling both their own lives and jobs while continuing a family legacy — it would become too much for them. It became an inevitability to liquidate and move on from the store full of the love that their father and family shared with all.

“We all have full time jobs/lives elsewhere. Our mother is about ready to retire from the business and move onto other things. Selling off the remaining inventory and liquidating seemed like the best lucrative option to deal with our asset here,” Ben explained. “The business has been put up for sale and the property is listed for $500,000. Though we have gotten offers, none could compare to what we could get by liquidating the inventory.”

Although the liquidation of the store and the leaving of the Shortledge family may ultimately bring concerns for new businesses or prospects, the Shortledges promise that they want the business/building to be sold to the utmost best of hands.

“We want to keep the place a hardware store and keep it a place for the community. It would have been easier to sell the business as it is instead of going through with this sale and using up all of our energy. But in the end, with the help of a consultant, it will work out best for us financially to clear out the inventory. Who knows, maybe a hardware store would still be interested in this building,” said Ben. “There is a place here for this type of store and for someone with the energy and interest in doing it. It has been in Lock Haven for very a long time.”

It is a bittersweet moment for the community and for the family themselves. They held the place as their father’s magnum opus, however one that they felt was not truly intended for them.

“It was not our dad’s dream for us to take over the business. He knew what we wanted do with our lives. It was his store and it was what he wanted to do and he ran it the way he wanted it to be ran. It gave him everything he ever wanted out of it. We were always here when we were in school and so was mom and dad. So, we would be here in the morning before and after school. When we got older and went off to college, we would come home and they were here. This was the place where we would hang out almost every single day,” reflected young Tom.

To show the love that Tom had for his place of business would be an understatement. He would be a sunshine on anyone who had ever walked through the doors of Walker’s Hardware… even after his death.

“Our dad just absolutely loved it here. He would light up everytime he came in through the door and he made a lot of people light up when they walked in here too,” reminisced Mary Beth. “We even had his memorial service in here, which we thought was a great idea. We had estimated that around 400 people had showed up.”

“We got caught off guard for the service and it turned into a greeting line that stretched out, around, and down the block. For four hours, we stood here and greeted people. To see that come out of the community… their love for our father, to see that was really meaningful to us,” added Ben.

Now that the liquidation has begun and the countdown to closing has begun, plans for the Shortledges are not completely set in stone.

“After the liquidation is all over with, depending on what happens, we will move forward and go back to our lives, leaving the building up for sale for as long as we need to, and just see what happens,” explained Ben.

However, during the nine-week long closing sale, the family wants to give back and give thanks to all of those who have given their parents service for all these years.

As a thank you to everyone, the family will have a BA sausage food truck come through for the sale and will give out free food with a purchase of $20 or more, along with other food for purchase. Along with the food truck, the family will be giving away prizes including a 55″ TV, a grill, gift cards to local businesses, baskets donated from local businesses, and so much more.

“It meant a lot to our father and us, being a local business. He believed a lot in keeping the business local. He spent a lot of time working on little sales, helping someone fix this or that, buy one screw or fix a screen. To be a part of this community means a lot to all of us,” expressed the Shortledges.