Walking through the door at Houst Hardware will transport you to another time, or perhaps another reality, in which retail is the way it’s supposed to be.
If you’re near Woodstock and have a household or garden project planned, you need to know about Houst Hardware. If you’re near Woodstock and need sporting goods, pet supplies, housewares, camping gear, or a chess set, you need to know about Houst before you go trekking out of the hills to the big boxes. For that matter, if you just happen to be visiting Woodstock and don’t need anything in particular, but just want to authentically experience the town, we highly recommend a trip to Houst. Just walking through the door will transport you to another time, or perhaps another reality, in which retail is the way it’s supposed to be.
Woodstockers love Houst with a passion, not least because they can get so many of life’s necessities there. As the slogan on the webpage says, there’s something for everyone here. But it’s deeper than the things on the shelves and in the bins. It’s the welcome from people who sincerely care about what you need and will help you find it swiftly and sweetly.
“Mom & baby friendly store!” writes a Google reviewer. “I arrived with my stroller, the man at the front promptly offered help. He gave concise directions for where to find what I needed, and the easiest way to get there with my stroller. Thank you for being accessible to everyone.”
“There’s always been that general store vibe here.” - Jody Bryan, CEO and President
“Just a typical day at Houst,” writes local guide Tim Delaney. “I walked in with a bolt, needed a longer one with the same thread, and they helped me find it in two minutes. That’s the way it is there, and has been for the many years I have been going there. Plus, of course, they have all the usual hardware/ yard/home repair stuff for simpler needs!” Yet another reviewer was astonished when, on running into problems setting up the scaffolding they’d rented there, they called the store for guidance—and ended up receiving hands-on, in-person help at no extra charge.
It was 1932 when Henry O. Houst, a master electrician and father of six whose wife was facing a life-threatening illness, made the bold move of opening a store. Originally named the Tinker Shop, it was a place where you could find electrical or plumbing items and get them fixed—or catch a movie in the small theater. (His wife, Anna Mae, would recover and handle the office work for years.)
As the slogan on the webpage says, there’s something for everyone here.
“There’s always been some interesting side business,” says CEO and president Jody Bryan. “In the ’60s and into the ’70s, there was clothing, mainly Levi’s jeans. Then, into the ’90s, there was auto repair. Nowadays we do equipment rentals. And there’s always been that general store vibe.”
Bryan’s been working at Houst since just before she turned 18. When her mother married Ned Houst, nephew of Henry’s daughter Ruth, she’d already been there a few years and grown accustomed to the warm vibes and varied array of merchandise. Ned, who’d been managing Houst since the mid-1960s, had had opportunities in the corporate world—but Woodstock won out, and he never looked back. Now, he still does some of the bookkeeping, but has been turning the reins over to his stepdaughter and her husband John Despres, a native Woodstocker with memories of shopping at Houst as a kid and now runs the equipment rental business.
It’s been a gradual transfer, far more evolution than revolution. Bryan and Despres are firm believers in the core mission and human-centric nature of the business. One thing Bryan’s done just recently is work with Nan Tepper Design to revamp the website with the new slogan, “There’s something for everyone at Houst!”, and artwork from Thorneater Comics creator Will Lytle. Besides the slogan and the graceful art, there’s a sly, mellow wit that one suspects Henry might have appreciated:
On their website, for example, scroll your computer mouse over a sketch of a birdfeeder and the words “Birds not included” are revealed. The other change Bryan’s made, staying closed on Sundays, began during the pandemic and has worked out well for everyone— well, almost everyone.
Customers occasionally fuss, but Bryan says that looking out for her team—some of whom have decades on the job—is key to maintaining the quality of service that only comes from folks who have quality of life.
“It was just before Easter Sunday in 2020, and we were packed; I mean, it felt like half the population of New York City was in Woodstock,” says Bryan. “Just hordes of people, and not very comfortable. I made the decision to close on weekends for a month, to give everybody some breathing room, let us all take a step back.
After that month, we reopened on Saturdays. But I have people who’ve been here for years and years. They’re not really replaceable, and it’s good for all of us to have one day a week when none of us have to worry about it.”
Bryan imagines that those who experience Sunday hardware emergencies probably head over to a different store, but it’s all good. Down the line, Bryan and Despres hope to find their own successors—people who can share the passion for small-town retail that’s been keeping Houst vital for over eight decades.
“We’re in the center of town, and this really is still a small town, even if it does feel like half of New York State lives here these days,” Bryan says. “And it feels like we’re one of the remaining vital components of that small-town feel.
So it’s a priority of ours to find a way to continue that organizational culture into the future. It’s not just about us, me and John. It’s a co-creation between everyone who works here and everyone who walks through our doors. The whole vibe, the usefulness and friendliness, is a group project—and it’s important to us to keep that going.”
So whether you’re in search of fasteners, hand tools, paint, pet supplies, or a board game to pass a pleasant rainy afternoon, come on into this down-to-earth heart of town and immerse yourself in the art of hardware, Woodstock’s low-key center of peace, love…and nuts and bolts.
houst hardware
4 Mill Hill Road, Woodstock
845-679-2115
housthardware.com
