The Detroit Hardware Co. at 6432 Woodward Ave. in Detroit's New Center area is calling it quits after 94 years.
"We have sold our building and will be closing the store," it announces on Facebook.
Allie Gross of the Detroit Free Press reports:
Owned since the 1950s by two families, the store has seen three generations take the helm. It's been an institution. But now, just as the neighborhood appears to be on the rise and business is improving, the owners are saying goodbye.
"We're all at retirement age," Sparkman's business partner Emily Webster, 70, said, referring to herself, Sparkman, 61, and their only full-time employee, Vickie Nezwisky, 61, who has been with the company for 44 years.
The owners, who also include Sparkman's 87-year-old father, Robert Hocking, closed a deal with an unnamed buyer for $1,050,000. While Webster said she's not at liberty to share who bought the building, she noted that it wasn't "a group" like The Platform or Midtown Inc., which have been scooping up property in the New Center area.
