San Diego Hardware has outfitted the city's homes since 1892
The oldest family-owned business in San Diego now stocks more than 7,000 knobs and 4,000 hinges — a long way from washboards and ice boxes.
San Diego Hardware opened on 5th Avenue in 1892, selling the essentials of the era: washboards, wood stoves, ice boxes, and sporting goods. A 1922 move two blocks north put it in a former F.W. Woolworth's storefront, where a newspaper at the time called it the finest hardware store on the Pacific coast.
After 114 years downtown, the store relocated to Kearny Mesa in 2006, trading its original footprint for an 8,000-square-foot showroom stocked with more than 7,000 knobs, 4,000 hinges, and 1,000 different door locks — reportedly the largest selection of decorative hardware in San Diego.
It's now both San Diego's oldest family-owned business and its 10th oldest business overall, still running on the same philosophy printed in that 1893 newspaper notice: courteous treatment and honorable dealing.