HUDSON – After 150 years, Robinsons Hardware, a beloved member of the downtown Hudson business community, has closed.
The store’s history begins with Ira A. Dutton, who opened a hardware store in 1874. Hudson had become a town just six years earlier, and Dutton found a ready market for the items he carried in his store.
In 1884, senior partner John H. Robinson, and a friend, John C. Holden, bought out the firm of Ira A. Dutton, added to the stock, and enlarged the business. The firm became known as Holden and Robinson. The store, located in the Chase Block, was well established when the great fire of July 4, 1894, destroyed it and much of Hudson’s downtown.
A new block was soon erected and the business went on until the death of Holden in 1899, when the younger brother of J. H. Robinson, Sidney M. Robinson, was added to the firm and they became known as “John and Sid.” It soon became apparent that the name “John and Sid” had great advertising value and the quick-witted pair adopted the sobriquet from that day forward.
The store, at 35 Main St., came to be known as one of the most up-to-date hardware stores in the New England states.
Tragedy struck a second time when the Chase Block, arguably the most handsome building downtown, burned to the ground on the bitter cold night of February 7, 1935.
A smaller, one-story building with a basement was soon erected and the business continued, the new address being 29 Main Street, but the store was essentially in the same location as before.
The Robinson family continued to run the store for several more decades, until it was purchased by Norman and Marion Underwood in 1963.
The W. T. Grant Company had a department store in the center of town for many years. When the Hudson Counter Company factory was dismantled in 1961, Grants built a new store in its place, alongside the waterfall on Washington Street.
Grants, founded in 1906, was an old, established retailer, but by the early 1970s the company was in trouble. The Hudson store closed in 1973 and by 1976 the firm was bankrupt. In 1974, Robinsons set up a new store in the former Grants location. The business carried on successfully for several more decades.
Changing times, and competition from “big box” stores made it impossible to continue and on October 31, 2024, Robinsons became a part of Hudson’s proud history.
The fond memories remain.
