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Family owned in Cedar Falls since 1962 · Two stores · One service bench

Holloway Hardware Done right since 1962
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Since 1962

Three generations, one bench

Earl built the service bench the year he opened. Diane put the prices on the wall above it. Sam runs it now, and his kids restock the seed racks on Sundays. Here's the whole story, year by year.

The three generations

Earl & Ruth Holloway

1962 – 1989

First generation — the founders

Earl was a machinist at the valve works who fixed his neighbors' storm doors on Saturdays until Ruth pointed out he might as well get paid for it. They bought the old Berg's five-and-dime on Main Street, kept the creaky floor, and built the service bench that's still bolted down in back. Ruth ran the books and the layaway drawer; Earl ran his mouth and the fastener wall.

“Sell the ten-cent washer. They'll remember it longer than a ten-dollar ad.”

Diane Holloway

1989 – 2015

Second generation — the builder

Earl's daughter grew up counting bolts into paper bags and took the keys in 1989. When the big box opened out by the highway in 1994, Diane made the call the store still runs on: get better, not bigger. She put prices on the service-bench wall, started the paint-matching counter, and opened the Riverside store in 1998 so the east side didn't have to cross town for a hinge.

“We can't out-buy them. We can out-know them, and we can out-care them.”

Sam Holloway

2015 – today

Third generation — the fixer

Diane's son, back after eight years as a finish carpenter, which is why he'll talk you out of the wrong tool with real conviction. Sam signed the tool-library partnership in 2019, started the monthly Repair Café in 2023, and still cuts most of the keys himself. His kids restock the seed racks on Sundays, so a fourth generation is technically on payroll.

“Most repairs are twenty dollars and ten minutes of honest talk.”
A counterman in a work apron measuring a length of brass hardware for two customers at a glass parts counter, walls of drawer pulls and hinges behind him

How it works here

Hand it across the counter

The whole business model fits on an index card: you bring the part, the problem, or the photo. We match it, fix it, or tell you plainly who can. Earl figured that out in 1962 and nobody's improved on it — not us, and not the store on the highway.

It's why the fastener wall sells by the piece, why the bench prices hang where you can read them, and why the odd-parts drawer keeps hinges for storm doors nobody's made since 1974.

1962 → 2026

Sixty-four years, year by year

  1. 1962

    Earl unlocks the door

    Earl and Ruth Holloway open in the old Berg's five-and-dime at 214 Main Street with three aisles, a coffee pot, and a hand-painted sign Earl lettered himself over two nervous evenings.

  2. 1968

    Through the wall

    The shoe shop next door closes; Earl buys it, knocks through the brick, and doubles the store to eight aisles. The doorway arch is still visible over aisle 4 — look up at the fastener wall.

  3. 1974

    The Holloway Hammers

    The store sponsors its first Westside Little League team. Fifty-two seasons later the jersey wall in the back hallway is three rows deep, and we still re-paint the dugouts every spring.

  4. 1989

    Diane takes the keys

    Earl retires to a stool by the register and a lifetime of unsolicited advice. Diane takes over, puts the service-bench prices up on the wall where everyone can see them, and starts the paint counter.

  5. 1994

    The big box lands on the highway

    Everyone said to panic. Diane's answer, taped to the break-room door to this day: “Get better, not bigger.” The service bench got longer that year, not shorter.

  6. 1998

    Riverside opens

    A second store on River Road with a real parking lot, a lawn & garden yard, and the big workbench — so the east side doesn't have to cross town for a hinge.

  7. 2009

    The free-sharpening winter

    The recession bites hard. Diane sharpens mower blades, saws, and kitchen knives free all winter — “people fix things when times are thin; least we can do is keep them sharp.” Nobody here has forgotten who came back in spring.

  8. 2015

    Sam comes home

    Third generation. Eight years a finish carpenter, so when he says the cheaper caulk is fine, he's not guessing. Diane keeps Tuesdays at the Riverside register, by choice.

  9. 2019

    The tool-library handshake

    Holloway partners with the Cedar Falls Tool Library: we service their donated tools at cost, they lend our neighbors the tools nobody should have to buy twice a decade.

  10. 2023

    The first Repair Café

    Third Sunday of the month at Riverside: bring the wobbly chair, the dead lamp, the torn screen. Free, communal, and louder than you'd expect. Some months we fix forty things.

  11. 2026

    Sixty-four years in

    Two stores, eight departments, one bench with the prices on the wall — and a fourth generation restocking the seed racks on Sundays. The plan, such as it is: keep the door unlocked and the blades sharp.

The next chapter gets written at the counter. See what we're up to in town

The whole pitch

Bring the broken thing. We'll take it from there.

The bolt, the chip of paint, the photo of the drip — whatever you've got. Sixty-four years in, the answer is usually ten minutes and a few dollars away.

Hours & directions Ask us first

Main Street

214 Main Street · Downtown Cedar Falls

  • Monday – Friday: 7:30 am – 6:00 pm
  • Saturday: 8:00 am – 5:00 pm
  • Sunday: 10:00 am – 3:00 pm

(555) 019-6222

Riverside

1080 River Road · Riverside, Cedar Falls

  • Monday – Saturday: 7:00 am – 6:00 pm
  • Sunday: 9:00 am – 4:00 pm

(555) 019-6223

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