UWS' Beacon Paint And Hardware Closes After 120 Years: Owners

UPPER WEST SIDE, MANHATTAN — A beloved hardware store that had been struggling for months to stay open will officially close its doors after more than 100 years in the neighborhood, owners announced Monday.

Beacon Paint & Hardware, which has been open for 120 years, announced on Facebook that it will be closing its Amsterdam Avenue and West 78th Street storefront, nearly a year after friends of the business first started a GoFundMe to help the struggling store.

Owners thanked the "overwhelming" support from Upper West Siders and their landlord but said the help ultimately wasn't enough to keep them afloat.

"We love our customers, our neighbors, the schools, the students, parents, dogs and everyone else who shopped here or just came in to see our dogs or to say hello," owner Bruce Stark said in th message. "...We would not have lasted as long as we did without our wonderful customers, neighbors and community."

A friend of Beacon Paint & Hardware's owners originally created the GoFundMe campaign last April with a goal to raise $100,000 for the store, which at the time was worried competition from online and big-box retailers combined with rising costs may eventually force it to shutter, owners told Patch.

The Stark family has owned Beacon Paint & Hardware since 1971.

Stark lamented Monday that Beacon likely wouldn't have to close had the business climate been as it was back then, when the store's competition was other small hardware and paint stores, rather than giant companies like Home Depot.

"I still believe that in a fair fight, we would have kicked Home Depot's rear, but there seems to be a shortage of fairness these days," he wrote.

But Beacon's owners, including Stark, will still be present in the neighborhood, he added.

Stark said he will become manager of Janovic Paints' store on West 72nd Street and owners Steven Stark and Ellen Stark-Gabe will join him at the location.

The owners will continue their longtime tradition of supporting neighbors, he added.

"Please come by and say hello," he said. "I miss my friends already. Please continue to come to me to ask for any kind of donations. I will need to get permission first, of course, but will continue to support the community as much as I can."