After more than four decades of selling supplies and doling out advice at Aborn True Value, Jose Monroy, who has owned the store since 2007, is moving on.
The shop changed owners on Feb. 3 when Monroy sold it to Karl Smith, who currently owns a hardware store in Marblehead.
“There’s a whole bunch of new services and products we’re excited to bring to Brookline,” Smith said. “We think it’s a great neighborhood.”
Located on Harvard Street since the 1950s, Aborn True Value is one of a dwindling number of local hardware stores in Brookline.
Monroy immigrated to the U.S. from Guatemala in the 1970s with his wife Irene. The two first settled in Washington, D.C., where Monroy worked for several years in a cabinet factory, before moving to Dorchester, MA. It was there that Monroy began working for Jerry Katz, then-owner of Aborn and a few other hardware stores. Katz referred Monroy to Aborn, where Monroy worked from 1984 until he bought the shop in November 2007.
Now in their 70s, Monroy and his wife have been dealing with health complications that signaled to Monroy it was time to sell Aborn.
In the 17 years since Monroy bought Aborn, he’s witnessed countless snowstorms and given customers recommendations on everything from sandpaper to power tools. But his favorite time of the year, he said, comes at the end of every summer.
“My neighborhood is Jewish, so they don’t celebrate Christmas, so in August it’s Christmas for us because it’s when all the students are coming back to school,” Monroy told Brookline.News in an interview. “I am surrounded by all the universities, and we have lots and lots of business. It’s the most exciting part of the year.”
For Charlie Morgan and Cathy Loula, a married couple who live near Aborn, Monroy has been as much of a staple to the community as his hardware store. Morgan and Loula remembered walking their daughters to school at Florida Ruffin Ridley and stopping to practice their Spanish with Monroy.
When Morgan stopped by the store the other day, both he and Monroy teared up reflecting on the past few decades. Morgan and Loula have frequented Aborn for 30 years, and they’re sad to see Monroy leave the neighborhood, Loula said.
“Sure, there will be a new owner we’ll get attached to, but the relationships are meaningful,” she said. “We knew him by name and he definitely knew us and our stories and our girls.”
For Monroy, having customers in the store is like having guests in his home — and he’s heartbroken to let the shop go, he said.
“What I really did is live every day in the store and have my customers, my guests, every single day, every week,” Monroy said. “I’m so happy to be here and sad to leave.”