Hardware store is an historic stop

By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
PETERSBURG -- Stove mats, drill bits, draw knives, chimney brushes, fly swatters, chicken wire, pitchforks and post-hole diggers are just a few of the thousands of items to be found at Knesal Hardware Co.
Paul Hvizdos lives in Poland Township, and has worked at Knesal since 1970. He said owner Joe Hankinson lived in Petersburg when he began working at Knesal in 1945 and still lives there. Hankinson and his wife, Suzanne, bought the store in 1967.
Hankinson now winters in Florida, when Hvizdos said he "pinch hits" for Hankinson by working part-time. Hankinson's son, Todd Hankinson, and daughter, Kim Mesmer, run the store.
Hvizdos said the frame building at state Route 170 and Garfield Road could be about 210 years old. It has been a hardware store since the Knesal brothers opened the day after Christmas in 1893.
He said members of various historical societies have said the building was a stop on a stagecoach line. There's evidence that various rooms of the three-story building housed a general store and other shops.
A look inside
There are wooden floors and tin ceilings throughout. Pipe fittings and nails, and nuts and bolts are kept in wooden bins and drawers.
In one room on the second floor there are mysterious metal fixtures in the ceiling that some visitors have suggested might have supported hooks to display hats or other items.
Now there are spring-planting seeds sold in bulk from wooden bins, hunting and fishing supplies and nightcrawlers for bait in the spring and summer months.
Outdoor enthusiasts can also buy hunting and fishing licenses and deer tags at the store.
"The big stores don't hurt us too much because they're too far away," Hvizdos said. "We're out here at the crossroads, so we get people from all over."
They have it
He said customers have found hard-to-find items at the store after being told at hardware stores in other towns that "We don't have it, but Knesal probably does."
Hvizdos said the inventory has changed some over the years, even since he started working at the store in 1970. What hasn't changed is the family's commitment to one-on-one customer service.
Most store visitors are regular customers in search of common items such as plumbing repair supplies, nuts and bolts, nails or light bulbs, he said. Others bring in windows to have glass replaced or screens repaired.
Hvizdos dusts off the top of a box with his sleeve before taking the item to the sales counter for a customer. He explains that Knesal has hard-to-find items because inventory is kept on the shelves until it is sold.
"The big stores have a strict inventory, and if it doesn't sell, they don't keep it," Hvizdos said. "Here, we might have an item for a year or more, then someone will buy it."
Throughout its history, Knesal has been the place to buy coal and wood-burning stoves, lawn mowers, roofing materials, paint, shovels, rakes, farm machinery and implements, washers and dryers, sweatshirts, stocking caps, wool socks, gloves, boots and thermal underwear.
Once the store had full-time employees to repair lawn mowers. There was even a two-bay auto repair garage and attendants sold Gulf gasoline.
Keeping pace
Hvizdos said the bulk of the store's business now is hardware, plumbing and electrical supplies. There are even a few coal stoves and woodburners left in stock.
Customers can buy kerosene heaters and kerosene, cast iron skillets, mailboxes, canning jars and Swiss army knives. There are hundreds of other items, including many hard-to-find parts and replacement parts for obsolete items.
For one customer, Mesmer found replacement parts for an electrical breaker box no longer made.
"We've got a problem," Hvizdos deadpanned as he found plastic piping for a plumber who stopped in. "I'm sorry I can't sell you this."
In slapstick fashion reminiscent of a Three Stooges or Laurel and Hardy gag, Hvizdos said he couldn't sell the pipe because the 8-foot sections wouldn't fit through the 6-foot doorway.
"They have everything here," the plumber said on the way out the door. "They might not find it, but it's here!"
tullis@vindy.com