Remembering Nelson Roanoke

My husband brought home what appears to be a 1955 edition of the catalog for Nelson Roanoke, which apparently has been in his parents' basement for many years.

Nelson Roanoke was a hardware store in downtown Roanoke, VA that sold everything one could think of. It was sort of like Sears on steroids with a focus on hardware.

The catalog is about four inches thick.

My husband has large hands. He wears a 2xl in gloves.

My husband recalls the company as the place to go to get, well, pretty much anything. As he flipped through the musty catalog, he called out wrenches, clocks, pipe, screws, tools, electric razors, mixers, coffee pots, pipe fittings, well pumps, light fixtures, medicine cabinets, shower doors, and many other items.

I vaguely recall the store myself. Since I wasn't into hardware and have never been a fan of downtown, even when I worked there, it wasn't a place I visited often.

A May 1, 1993 edition of The Roanoke Times reported the sale of the company:

Nelson-Roanoke Corp., a wholesale industrial-supplies distributor and one of the Roanoke Valley's oldest companies, has been sold to Frederick Trading Co., a major East Coast hardware distributor, company officials said Friday.

The Roanoke firm will continue operating under the Nelson-Roanoke name and management, but will offer a larger inventory with more lines of hardware, said Raymond L. Thomas, president of Frederick Trading of Frederick, Md. The purchase price was not reported.

Both are family-owned wholesale companies and members of the Distribution America buying group. Nelson-Roanoke, dating from 1888, has been owned by the descendants of six Nelson brothers. It is managed by three cousins - William J. Nelson Jr., president; Louis Showalter, vice president and general manager; and Alex Nelson, vice president.

Frederick Trading, started in 1934 by four cousins in the Thomas family, now has 200 stockholders. The 300-employee firm operates in a territory from New York state south to North Carolina.

Nelson-Roanoke has about 90 employees, including 25 in sales. Its terrority covers most of Virginia, a large part of West Virginia and part of North Carolina. Thomas said the new owners expect the business to grow and is considering extending its lines of bathroom, heating and air-conditioning equipment to Nelson-Roanoke's retail customers.

"We'll keep everything as it is, at least at the beginning. If we find we don't need everybody there, we'll find other jobs for them," Thomas said. No Frederick Trading personnel will move to Roanoke, he said.

The acquisition, Frederick's first in 40 years, does not include a Nelson- Roanoke carpeting subsidiary, Classic Flooring Distributors, which will continue with a work force of 20 under the Nelson ownership. William Nelson is president.

The Nelson family will continue to own the company's building, containing more than 100,000 square feet, at 901 11th St. N.E.

Frederick Trading will gain purchasing power and will offer services, such as store programming, "needed to compete with the Wal-Marts," Thomas said. He described Frederick as "a good-sized, regional wholesaler on the Eastern seaboard."

The oldest predecessor of the Roanoke company was Nelson Hardware, started by Alexander Nelson, grandfather of the three current managers, and Henry Myers, his uncle, in 1888.

In 1957, the company moved from East Campbell Avenue to its present site. Six years later it bought Roanoke Hardware Co., which had been formed in 1901. 

I found this photo of the original building on Facebook.