The Eddy Hardware Dynasty Lasted 96 Years

HARDWARE

Slater & Hudnit rebuilt their hardware “store house” in 1871, producing a three-story building at 34-40 Bridge Street, Frenchtown. (Nowadays “store house” means “warehouse,” but back then it meant “store.”) This business and property were later taken over by George W. Bunn, who sold out to Henry Loux in 1880.

George W. Eddy and son Samuel O. bought the building and the hardware business in 1884, and it has been known as the Eddy block ever since. Eddy's Hardware would occupy the second story and much of the first. The third story, a 32-by-60-foot room, was used for theatrical productions, Masonic meetings and other public gatherings.

Eddy's Hardware stayed in business through four generations of Eddys.

The founder, George W. (1832-1897) arrived in Hunterdon County from Easton, Pa., aboard a timber raft. He lived in Stockton for awhile before settling in Frenchtown in 1851.

Samuel O. (1864-1934) was in the second generation of hardware Eddys. He was a third-baseman on the town baseball team, served as mayor in 1900-01, presided over the cemetery association, and resided in the 1805 brick house west of the Odd Fellows building. (It's gone now.) In 1922 he added a “durable stone fence in the rustic style” on the west side of his residence. (It's still there.)

During his reign, a little flattersome booklet called Frenchtown Uptodate (1916) said of his store, “Every class of hardware is carried, besides builders' supplies and farming implements. The stock includes heavy and light hardware, tools of every description, firearms, doors, screens, oil cloth, blankets, paints and varnishes, house furnishings, farmers' necessities and supplies, horse equipments and every other kindred article...” He sold the business to his son in 1926 and retired.

Another George W. (1888-1963) continued the dynasty for the third generation. In 1933 he was residing in the old Capner farmhouse (where the American Legion hall is now), and Eddy's Hardware had a branch store in Clinton in 1929-52.

The hardware store was badly damaged by a fire in 1940, and I'll post something about that tomorrow.

The next and final Eddy in the hardware dynasty was William J. (1918-2014). Active in the fire company, he was fire chief in 1951. Bill took charge of the hardware business in 1962, downsizing and moving it across Bridge Street to No. 47 (current home of Country Chic.) He said that the mainstay of the Eddy's Hardware had always been “nails and paint.”

He ended the Eddy Hardware line in 1980 when he and wife Vivian sold the store to Gene Hale, a former Somerville High School football star who could've been mistaken for TV actor Robert Urich. In retirement, Bill Eddy's pastimes included growing Burley tobacco at his Everittstown Road home. The seeds came from the same state as his wife – North Carolina.

Hale named the store Frenchtown Home & Hardware and in 1983 rented part of 11 Kingwood Avenue (originally E.B. Apgar's auto-repair building) from Bill Ditschman. The next year Hale bought four acres from Ditschman, including the store, the former Ford building next door, and the parking lot across the street. In 2004 he sold the real estate to Montclair architect Jonathan Perlstein, and in 2012, the hardware business to Mike Tyksinski. (I'd include a photo of Mike, but you can go to the store and see him for yourself.) Perlstein also owns the building containing Kathee's General Store, which used to house the Opdycke's horse-trading stables.

From “Rick's Frenchtown Encyclopedia”