Sell what we use ourselves
Every staff member buys at staff discount. We carry brands we use at home; we don't carry brands we wouldn't. Lin Park makes inventory decisions based on what holds up to actual use.
OUR STORY · 6 ERAS · 4 GENERATIONSEST. 1962 · CONTINUOUS · NEVER SOLD
63 years.
Four Holloways.
Earl Holloway opened the doors at 1872 Snelling Avenue in 1962 with $4,200 in inventory and a hand-painted sign. Three generations later, the sign still hangs; the bench Earl built is still in the back; the fourth generation just started on the floor.
FROM MARGARET HOLLOWAY-LEE · 3RD GEN
"My grandfather was always a hardware-store man. My father was always a hardware-store man. I'm a hardware-store woman; my son just started. We won't sell. We won't expand past three stores. We'll be here in 2050; some of the same staff will be too."
— Margaret Holloway-Lee · current owner · since 2003
AISLE01ERA 01 · 1962
EARL HOLLOWAY · 1ST GEN
1962
Earl Holloway opens a hardware store on Snelling Avenue.
Earl came back from Korea, worked construction for eight years, and opened the doors at 1872 Snelling Avenue with $4,200 in inventory and a hand-painted sign. Mostly fasteners, paint, and the kind of plumbing parts the bigger stores didn't bother with. He answered the phone himself; he sharpened knives on a Thursday-night bench he built in the back.
AISLE02ERA 02 · 1978
FRANK HOLLOWAY · 2ND GEN
1978
Earl's son Frank takes the counter; restoration plumbing arrives.
Frank had been working the floor since high school. He built up the restoration-plumbing department — the Twin Cities' Victorian neighborhoods were renovating, and nobody else carried period clawfoot fittings. He hired Pedro at age 19 (Pedro is now 41 and at the same counter). The shop pulled out of bankruptcy in '83 by selling Frank's truck and Earl's bench.
AISLE03ERA 03 · 1989
FRANK + MARGARET HOLLOWAY · TWO STORES
1989
Roseville store opens. The paint flagship.
Frank's daughter Margaret had finished her business degree and was running the books. She convinced Frank to open a second store — Roseville — and to invest in a real paint counter. Lin Park (then 24) joined as the paint specialist; she's still there. Seventeen Saturdays in a row Frank and Margaret painted samples on the bench themselves until they had a 4,200-color match library.
AISLE04ERA 04 · 2003
MARGARET HOLLOWAY-LEE · 3RD GEN
2003
Margaret takes over. The brand becomes 'Holloway,' not 'Earl Holloway Hardware.'
Frank retired in 2003. Margaret took the keys, kept the store name short, and made the call to invest in the original Falcon Heights store rather than expand. New floor, new lumber pull-through, restored the original 1962 sign (still hanging today). Margaret's married name is Lee, but she kept Holloway in the brand and the door.
AISLE05ERA 05 · 2014
MARGARET + TEAM · THREE STORES
2014
Maplewood store opens. Garden + outdoor.
Margaret's daughter Sophie (a Master Gardener) wanted to build a real garden + outdoor mecca. They opened Maplewood with trial beds out front (still the only hardware store in the Twin Cities with working trial beds). Marisol Ortega started in spring; she now rotates between Falcon Heights and Maplewood by season. Sophie still runs the garden side from the office.
AISLE06ERA 06 · 2025
ETHAN LEE · 4TH GEN
2025
Fourth generation joins the floor.
Margaret's son Ethan finished his architecture degree and turned down a corporate firm to come home and work the floor. He's at Falcon Heights weekday mornings, learning every department from the people who built it. Margaret says he'll run the place when she's ready (sometime in the 2030s). The fourth generation isn't a marketing line; it's the staff schedule.
AISLE07VALUES · 6 RULES
WHAT EARL WROTE DOWN IN 1962
Six rules.
Same six, since 1962.
Earl wrote these on a paper sign behind the counter; Frank framed it in 1978; Margaret has it in the office. The six rules are how we hire, what we stock, why we say no when other stores would say yes.
Answer the phone within two rings
Earl's rule, in 1962. Still our standard. Phone's answered by a human; we can't always pick up on the second ring, but we try.
Carry the parts the big-box skips
Cotter pins, hose-bib washers, square-drive bits, vintage cartridges, period clawfoot fittings. The small things; the inventory other places don't bother with.
Hire for tenure
Average staff tenure is 14 years. We hire people who plan to stay. We pay above local competitors and offer profit-sharing. The continuity is the product.
Refer rather than sell wrong
If we don't carry what you need, we'll point you to the Twin Cities specialty retailer who does. Twin Cities Tile, Northside Lumber, Twin Cities Carpets — we've referred to them for decades.
Stay small enough to know names
Three stores. We could expand; we won't. The cap is the practice. Margaret knows about 60% of regulars by name; Pedro knows about 80%; Marisol knows almost everyone in spring.
AISLE08PRESS · RECOGNITION
WHAT'S BEEN WRITTEN
Press
+ recognition.
We don't pay for these. The Reader's Choice picks itself; the MPR profile happened because a regular customer is a producer there. The trade association we've been on the board of since 1968.
- PR-01
MN Public Radio · 'Why Holloway is still here'
2024 · 22-min audio profile · the 60-year story
- PR-02
Star Tribune · Best Hardware Store
Reader's Choice · 6 years running (2019 — 2024)
- PR-03
Twin Cities Independent Hardware Assoc.
Founding member · 1968 · still board-active
AISLE09THE NUMBERS · 4 GENERATIONS
63OPEN · NEVER CLOSED
YEARS
4OF HOLLOWAYS
GENERATIONS
14ON THE FLOOR
AVG STAFF YEARS
0ALWAYS FAMILY
CORPORATE OWNERS
AISLE10STOP IN · MEET THE FAMILY
