| Clif Knight

McClanahan’s Hardware closed its doors Thurs., Aug. 22, ending a 77-year tenure as Hartselle’s last family-owned hardware business.

“Closing the store was a tough decision or us to make,” said owner Lynn Thrasher. “When my wife Valerie and I purchased the store from the McClanahan family nearly four years ago, we welcomed to opportunity to continue to offer the people of Hartselle the same personal service and traditional lines of quality hardware that the store offered continuously since 1936.

“We gave it our best shot,” he said, “but ultimately it proved not to be enough.”

Thrasher said he began to closely monitor sales the first of this year and the decision to close the store was made a little over a month ago. That’s when a 25 percent discount was offered on all existing stock.

The closure not only affects the employment of Thrasher, who managed the business, but store clerk Charles Teague as well. He was employed there for 34 years.

The store stocked many hard-to-find items that were unavailable anywhere else in Hartselle. They included stovepipe, snow sleds, bicycle tires, cast iron cooking utensils, pressure cookers, aluminum dishpans and hundreds of screws, nuts, bolts and fasteners.