Hart's, Longtime Southold Hardware Store, On the Market

SOUTHOLD, NY - A longtime bastion of the Southold business community is on the market.

Hart's True Value Hardware is up for sale, said Lisa Jerome, who took over the business almost 10 years ago when her father, Bill Goodale, passed away.

With three sons grown and a daughter heading into her second year of college, the time has come to pursue new horizons, Jerome said.

The goal, she said, would be to sell Hart's as a hardware store. "I'll know when the right person comes along," she said.

The business has been a Southold staple for more than 50 years.

Jerome always did the bookkeeping for her dad before taking over; now, her familiar face is a fixture for customers who pour steadily into the business, stopping to chat and trade stories of small-town Southold life.

Hart's has long been a family business, Jerome said; all three of her boys, Chris, Stephen and Matt have worked at the store.

But at 52, Jerome said she's ready for her next adventure, although she's not sure yet what she'd like that to be. "I can do anything — and everything," she said.

The business has been on the market for about month, Jerome said.

Owning the hardware store meant everything to her father, Jerome said. "This was my dad's dream."

Before Goodale took over in 1992, the shop was owned by Don Spates, and before that, Les Hart. "That's where the name came from," Jerome said.

Even before Hart, the Smith brothers owned a shed on the parcel, giving way to the idea for the hardware store, she said.

The business has deep roots in Southold's commercial history, too, she said. "We have permit #3 for the sign," a neon sign that came into existence before town code put the brakes on neon.

Karen Goodale, Lisa's mom, said her husband opened the store at 50, when he underwent a complete career change. "Before that, he was a funeral director," she said.

He commuted to Garden City to work as an undertaker when the family lived in New Suffolk; they later moved to Southold, Goodale said.

Goodale, who worked as a postal clerk for 20 years, said the end of a family tradition is bittersweet.

"It's sad to see it change hands," she said. "This was my husband's dream, to own a hardware store."

Jerome nodded."He wanted it to be an old-fashioned hardware store."

Goodale said she lost her husband to cancer; he was diagnosed on the day she retired in June, and died in December.

But together, the family has kept his dream alive, running the business in his honor. "Everyone pitches in," Jerome said. "My boys don't work here anymore but if they're here and somebody needs waiting on, they do."

Times, however, have changed.

"Things aren't like they used to be," Jerome said, noting that at one point she had a staff of four part-timers; most days now, she's the only one working at the business. "The economy has changed. That's made a difference."

Most of all, Jerome said, "I'm going to miss the people. They're great. We've had a lot of fun."

According to a listing by Abatelli Realty, the property, located at 50000 Main Road in Southold, is zoned business, with 200' on Route 25.

The parcel, the listing said, would be an "ideal stand up paddle boarding and kayak sales and rental business with 30' water frontage on Jockey Creek." The site offers almost 3,000 square feet with parking for 10 plus cars and includes a separate 576 square foot outbuilding and 30' water frontage on Jockey Creek.

The business is priced at $795,000.