Our History

Heights Hardware Since 1911

From three blocks south, the store's giant sign - blue-and-white paint on old brick - is readily visible: Heights Hardware Since 1911. The date might puzzle those who know that Coventry Village emerged in 1919-22. How do we account for the difference?

In 1911, Alfred, Arthur, and Sidney Weiskopf opened Weiskopf Bros. Hardware and Plumbing Company at 1140 East 105th Street in Cleveland's Glenville neighborhood. A decade later the brothers, sensing the new trend of Jews moving into the Heights, opened a second location called Weiskopf Bros. Heights Hardware in 1922. They sold their Glenville store three years later to concentrate on serving contractors and homeowners in the midst of the 1920s suburban population boom.

From the Weiskopfs to the Gathy family

Oscar Elton, son of Hungarian immigrants to Cleveland, bought out the Weiskopfs in 1949, beginning a family connection to the business that remains to this day. Elton sold the business to his distant cousin Carl Weiss in 1969, but continued to work in the store for some forty more years, into his nineties.

Meanwhile, Elton's second cousin, current owner Tom Gathy, fled Europe during the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. After six years he arrived in Cleveland and, with some help from Elton, became active in the construction trades. Having become a regular customer at Heights Hardware, Gathy decided to buy the store in 1979.

My father, Thomas Gathy, purchased Heights Hardware in 1979 and shortly after made the decision to join Ace Hardware. Belonging to the Ace Hardware family helps keep our prices low and gives us a greater selection of products.

The oldest business in Cleveland Heights

Thank you for visiting the Heights Hardware website. I am honored to be part of such a great institution that has survived the Great Depression, two World Wars and most recently the Housing Crisis. Doing so has made Heights Hardware the oldest business and last remaining independent hardware store in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.

Open since 1911, Heights Hardware has helped customers maintain their homes and buildings in Cleveland Heights, Shaker Heights, University Heights, Cleveland, and East Cleveland. Heights Hardware has been a Benjamin Moore Paint dealer since opening in 1911.

We are an old fashioned nut and bolts hardware store with all of the products, services, and knowledge to help you complete any project. No project is too big or too small for Heights Hardware, whether you're painting your whole home with our premium Benjamin Moore Paints or if you just need one bolt, we will be there to assist you all the same.