At Hoyt’s Ace Hardware, the hammer is coming down. After 97 years in business, the store that was founded in Ontario and relocated four decades ago to the new city of Rancho Cucamonga is closing its doors next month.

Co-owner Frank Nelson is telling people the last day is Oct. 20. He’s also telling them: “Maybe sooner if I sell enough stuff.”

He put a “Closing Sale” sign outside 7110 Archibald Ave. on Wednesday. A steady stream of vehicles pulled into the parking lot, including mine.

Nelson, who reads my column, wasn’t surprised to see me. Over the years I’ve made a specialty of obituaries for businesses, the older and more beloved the better.

Reader Nora Pasma alerted me even before the sign went out. Nelson had been taking longtime customers aside to break the news. He did that with Pasma’s husband, Bob, a onetime Upland Lumber employee, who likes small hardware stores like Hoyt’s and their easy parking.

“It has been a mainstay for us since we moved into our home in 1993,” Nora told me, “because they carried many of the supplies, like door handles, that matched our home.”

Hoyt’s wasn’t forced out. The store was still profitable — “barely,” said Nelson. He’s got a close-cropped white beard, an easygoing manner and a dry sense of humor.

At 73, he said, it’s simply time to retire. He offered the 11,200-square-foot business through the Ace Hardware network but no one was interested.

So he, his two brothers and his sister made the decision earlier this year to sell the 2-acre property. It’s in escrow for $3.5 million. (Their father had paid about $60,000 back in 1979.)

The buyer has made only general inquiries at City Hall.

The zoning “allows for a mix of housing and non-residential uses” under the general plan, which envisions “a small-town main street area” for that part of the city, according to Jennifer Nakamura, the city’s deputy planning director.

On Yelp, Hoyt’s Ace has a 4.2 rating and a lot of glowing reviews.

“Something feels right about a local hardware store. Like entering a simpler time, almost nostalgic,” wrote Justin N. “Ditch the big box and head over to these helpful folks.”

“The staff is friendly and helpful,” wrote Kim S. “I’ve been here many times through the years. Has that small town feel that I wish there was more of in this day of big box stores.”

“I love supporting a small store with hometown feel,” wrote Kelly S. “Great employees and customer service. I work in the area and appreciate them.”

Sherman Marian Hoyt, known professionally as S.M. Hoyt, started the business at 321 E. Holt Blvd. in downtown Ontario in 1926. The hardware store also had a lumber yard. Hoyt owned the business until 1973. His son Wayne Nelson, the second generation, owned it just as long, 1973 to 2019. “A lot of people knew him,” Frank Nelson said. Siblings Frank, Peggy, Rick and Jerry, the third generation, have owned the store since 2019.

Frank was the operator and face of the store in recent years. He had resisted Hoyt’s at first. In high school, he worked in the lumber yard during summers in the late 1960s and hated the hot, outdoor, repetitive labor.

He tried his hand at teaching and then toiled at Cask ‘n Cleaver steakhouse. Neither was for him. In 1981 he joined the family business.

Hoyt had moved to Rancho Cucamonga, newly incorporated as a city, in 1979. There was friendly competition with mom-and-pop stores like Matt’s, Coast to Coast, Cucamonga Hardware and Base Line Hardware. (Base Line, in 2006, was among my earlier business obituaries.)

Big-box stores like Lowe’s and Home Depot were dominating. It’s gotten harder for Hoyt’s to compete despite the field of same-sized hardware stores having cleared.

“Even grocery stores have a little hardware section: a lock, a pair of gloves or a rake,” Nelson said, shaking his head.

“A favorite line from our customers: ‘I went everywhere else first, but I knew you’d have it.’ I would tell them, ‘You should have come to us first,’” Nelson said.

Hoyt’s rode out a lot of economic downturns since 1926. I asked about S.M.

“He was smart,” Nelson said of his mother’s father. “He made a lot of money in the Depression. He would take down old houses, sell the lumber.”

Sister Peggy does the bookkeeping. Wife Connie handles personnel and pricing. The store has 12 employees.

“What’ll I miss? The fun customers, the nice customers,” Nelson said. “I may miss having a place to go. I’ll know after I retire.”

What won’t he miss? He said he was going to sound like an old man — “which I am,” he added. “Just the changes. I won’t miss having to keep up with new technologies.”

We walked over to the cashier’s station by the entrance. Bob LaFrance had just walked in after noticing the “closing” sign. He fixed Nelson with a silent, disappointed look.

“Didn’t I tell you, Bob? I’m sorry. I thought I had told everyone,” Nelson said apologetically.

LaFrance shook his friend’s hand.

He’s been a customer since moving to California in 1978, first on behalf of a glass door company in Riverside, then as a handyman at a mobile home park.

In that role, he’s come to Hoyt’s for everything “from soup to nuts,” he said.

“I’d come in with the stem from a faucet that was made in the ’20s. You’d have to look it up,” LaFrance told Nelson. “But you’d find it.”

Of Hoyt’s Ace Hardware, La France declared: “It’s been a landmark.”

After 97 years, I’d say he nailed it.

Fountain flub

I was in error in Wednesday’s column on Pomona’s makeover of Hamilton Park when I said in passing that the Pomona Civic Center’s long-dead fountain would be torn out for a playground. Actually, the playground will be built near the 1960s fountain, which will be renovated and restored to working order for the first time in a couple of decades.

At this point in history, I’ll believe it when I see it. But, having advocated for the fountain’s return back when Eddie Cortez was mayor, I’m looking forward to seeing it.

David Allen is all wet Friday, Sunday and Wednesday. Email dallen@scng.com, phone 909-483-9339, like davidallencolumnist on Facebook and follow @davidallen909 on Twitter.