Community Corner

West End Hardware Store To Close After Near Century In Business


After nearly a century in business, F.M. O'Rourke Hardware is going out of business.

The store, which first opened its doors in the West End in 1917, plans to close them for good either later this year or next, a worker at the store told Patch on Friday.

While the street corner unit at 917 W. Beech St. has already been rented by a new tenant, the exact date when the hardware store will close remains uncertain, the worker said.

He said the store's warehouse, which occupies five lots that extend across two blocks, and the equipment it housed - including lawnmowers, jackhammers, compressors and much more -- were heavily damaged or destroyed in Hurricane Sandy last year. Moreover, Frank O'Rourke, the 68-year-old owner of the family-run business, had been contemplating retirement.


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