Palatine's Longest-Running Business Closes After 136 Years

PALATINE, IL -- A Palatine hardware store, the town's longest running business, has shut its doors after 136 years on Brockway Street. The owner of Zimmer Hardware, Nancy Martino, received a court-ordered eviction in March, forcing the business at 16 N. Brockway Street, which that has been around since 1883, to close. Local residents have fond memories of the business, which has a vast array of items and odds and ends that are not typically found at bigger retailers, the Daily Herald reports.

"I'm going the miss the narrow aisles with all the hardware items from floor to ceiling," Palatine Historical Society President Joe Petykowski, who has lived in town since 1970, told the Daily Herald. "It seemed like the thing I needed most was always on the top shelf.

"I going to miss the squeak and the slam of the basement door, if you were lucky enough to go downstairs to look for that one-of-a-kind accessory for your house," he said. "And every time you paid your electric bill, you always walked out with a package or two of light bulbs."

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