Hardware Store Out of History Yields to Reality

"He used to tell stories about the big-name families who lived on Massachusetts Avenue," David Candey said. They would flee Washington's steamy summers by going to Europe, taking their belongings along in big steamer trunks.

"They would always lose their keys, and he would make them again and again," Candey said. "He had barrels and barrels of keys."

During World War II, the hardware store sold glue by the pound, resembling bricks of hard taffy, Candey said; a furniture store nearby would melt the glue and use it in furniture-making.

"You couldn't get bags to put things in because of the war," he said. "We kept a stack of newspapers on the counter, and if you bought a dozen bolts, we'd just wrap them up, like a meat-cutter."

In 1951, George Candey, the father of David Candey and Gwen Loftin, built a store next to the original location; a Chevrolet dealership operated nearby. Loftin moved the business one block north, to its current site, 20 years ago.

Through the years, well-known people ventured in for a picture hanger, a duplicate key: actor Jack Lemmon, former first lady Bess Truman, astrologer Jeane Dixon, who lived in the neighborhood. Art collector Marjorie Phillips would send a driver over for boxes of light bulbs.

"It was one of our biggest accounts, and it was just light bulbs," Loftin said.

On a recent weekday morning, Candey Hardware seemed as lively as ever. Woodfolk, who makes 300 to 500 keys a day, was cutting one for Mike Trevelline, a lawyer whose office is nearby. Loftin's 16-year-old grandson, Ryan Mattsson, was helping out one final summer with the family business: Ryan's father, Eric, is the store's general manager.

David Candey, who operated a branch of Candey Hardware in Bel Air, Md., before closing in 2000, said it's a bittersweet time, but the family is philosophical about the change.

"It's just part of life," he said. "As you go through life, you're born, you have real days when you're thriving and productive, and then you come to an older time when it's time to look ahead."