Larry Hassett, known for his community service and honest business values, was approached by the Wisnom family who wanted to sell their historic San Mateo hardware store to someone who would honor its place in Bay Area history. The Hassetts purchased the store in 2009 and proudly serve San Mateo as an integral part of the community.
The store is located at the corner of 1st and Delaware streets in downtown San Mateo, but it wasn’t always there – that land used to be the lumberyard for the Wisnom family business back in the 1880s. The Wisnom brothers, Robert J. and William partnered with Robert Bonner in 1905 and opened Wisnom-Bonner Hardware at the corner of Second Avenue and Ellsworth. They were the only game in town and San Mateo really was a town back then, with only a few thousand inhabitants. But Wisnom and Bonner knew that those people needed hardware supplies for their homes, businesses and properties – they also sold horseshoe nails and barbed wire, serviced Dodge vehicles in the 1920s and went on to add large household appliances like stoves, fireplaces and refrigerators along with phonographs, records and a listening booth. The fireplace department lasted until the mid 2000s.
