You might’ve thought the big sign that once hung out in front of the now-extinct Newhall Hardware on Main Street was long gone. When the store closed its doors on March 16, 2008, a coffin and black balloons at the entrance signified the business’ death, the “wake” held 61 years after the place had opened.
But currently inside the old Saugus Train Station at the Santa Clarita History Center in Newhall, in a back room, the sign sits among stacks of bins containing dozens, if not hundreds of items from Newhall Hardware, including old business machines and business records, and even the original barrel that founder Don Guglielmino (Don G., as he was often called) used as his first “barrel of nails.”
Former business owner Victor Feany, who closed the store because he couldn’t compete with an offer to buy the building, which at the time he was leasing, kept many items from the store because, as he told The Signal, he’d hoped that one day they’d return to the community to keep the important memory of Newhall Hardware alive. At the end of June, Feany donated those items to the Santa Clarita Valley Historical Society in Newhall, knowing, he said, the memorabilia was in good hands.
“This was all very dear to Victor,” said Leon Worden, vice president of the SCV Historical Society, standing among much of the stuff the society received. “Victor loved the hardware store. He loved the stories of the hardware store. And the thing about both Don G. and Victor was that they had one of everything in inventory, even if it was something that you sell once every 25 years. The reputation was you can go to Newhall Hardware and find whatever it is you’re looking for.”
Newhall Hardware, known for its friendly and very knowledgeable service, prided itself in having everything, Worden said, unlike the big-box stores that buy in bulk and just don’t have it all.
In an April 2008 SCVTV video that covered the closing of the store, Larry Bird, the late Newhall businessman and former owner of the Golden Oaks Apartments, had said that Lowe’s and The Home Depot would sometimes send people to Newhall Hardware if they didn’t have what someone was looking for.
And it wasn’t just residents, handymen and contractors who frequented the place, many of whom had been shopping there for over 40 years. Worden said Six Flags Magic Mountain and the movie studios regularly relied on Newhall Hardware.
Worden brought out a framed one-sheet of the 1997 Russell Crowe film “L.A. Confidential,” signed by transportation coordinator Keith Dillin, with the note: “To the gang at Newhall Hardware: There is probably not a scene in our film that doesn’t contain a nut, bolt, fitting or prop from Newhall Hardware. Thanks with all your help with our film about how things used to be in L.A. Your store shows how some things haven’t changed and hopefully never will.”
And while Newhall Hardware would ultimately not prevail, it’s hoped that its history will live on in an exhibit that the SCV Historical Society wants to build.
Worden said the society doesn’t have a solid location for such a presentation yet, but they might do something temporary in the nearby Pardee House on the park grounds as they figure that out. Ultimately, he said he wants to have a large space, perhaps in the Newhall Ranch House, which is also on the property, that would become the home to physical vignettes of the store.
In other words, guests won’t just see items behind glass – rather, they’ll be able to walk through scenes of the store and experience the place from yesteryear.
“You’re walking into something, and it feels like your memory of Newhall Hardware,” Worden said. “It’s not like, ‘Oh, here’s the sign,’ or, you know, ‘Here’s a doodad.’ No, it’s everything. It’s the whole assemblage that makes it something.”
Worden emphasized that what’ll make the exhibit so great is the vast collection of items that Feany saved and donated, a compilation of items that’s more comprehensive and diverse than anything the society has ever received.
“We’ve got basically everything that you’d identify with, except for the peanut shells,” Worden said.
Those peanut shells were a staple in the store, he said, but an exhibit won’t include that detail because, as Worden put it, “we can’t have rat food in the museum.”
Eva Gritz, supervising archivist at the SCV Historical Society, said she believes these displays that are planned will be a great treat for those who remember the store.
“Newhall Hardware was such a vital part of this community for so many years,” she said. “I mean, I was going in there as a kid with my dad, and I’m 57. It’s sorely missed by the community.”
As for a timeline for the project, Worden said it’s unclear. The society recently applied for a $975,000 California State Library grant that, if received, would’ve been used to restore the Saugus Train Station, the Pardee House and the Newhall Ranch House.
However, the state just notified the society, declaring that the Budget Act of 2024 (Chapters 22 and 35, Statutes of 2024) was enacted, and the budget reverted the funding. “As a result,” an email to the SCV Historical Society read, “this round of the California Museum Grant Program will not be moving forward.”
In a follow-up message to The Signal, Worden wrote, “There are always other opportunities; you just have to regroup and rework your timeline and priorities. Maybe not a ‘get it all done’ grant like this one, but we will have to bite off one piece at a time with other, smaller grant opportunities.”
Feany is excited to see something come out of the Newhall Hardware collection of items he donated, adding that the store was one of those pieces of Santa Clarita Valley history that tells the story of the area.
“I think local history is probably the most important thing,” Feany said. “It’s kind of like your family history. You want to know your parents and your grandparents, and where they came from and who they are. I think with local history, local businesses and the area grows, things change and things disappear. The people coming into the area don’t have the sense of what began maybe as a train station or a cattle ranch, and is now a bustling little city. Why is it there? How did it come to be there?”
Worden added that while the exhibit will most definitely be a treasure to those who want to take a trip down memory lane, it’ll, indeed, be a valuable resource to those who didn’t know the store to have a chance to see and feel what it was like in those days.
“If you want to know who you are and the way they are in this town, you have to understand how they got here,” Worden said. “You have to have an understanding of what went on before if you want to understand why things work the way they work in this town. Things don’t just happen overnight. It’s the progression. History is a continuum. It started a long time ago, and it continues tomorrow.”
