Lakewood Lore

A bit of reminiscing gives us a Freese frame of past

Freese Hardware Store on Madison Avenue at Warren Road--one of Lakewood's oldest and most well-known, family-run enterprises--will close next month after nearly 75 years in business.

Currently, discount sales are being held at the store to sell off the merchandise on hand. These will continue until May 15.

The landmark's demise will leave Lakewoodites with a twinge of nostalgia--especially those loyal customers who, through the years, have sought advice at the store to help solve vexing home fixture repair problems.

"We'll miss our customers, too," said Hugo A. (Bud) Zenker, a mainstay in the business since 1960. "Often, near their wit's end they would bring in their broken parts for us to examine. They provided us challenges. We tried to steer them in the right direction. Our work was never boring."

Founder of the store was Albert J. Freese, who was born on Cleveland's West Side in 1890 and died in 1971 at age 80.

As a young man, Freese, with horse and wagon, built up an early bakery sales route. He worked for Spang's and for Speck's two one-time prominent companies in that long-extinct selling pursuit.

Through his door-to-door contacts, Freese became convinced that Lakewood represented a fertile field for economic activity and growth.

With his wife of two years -- the former Myrtle Gorrie -- he moved in 1914 to Lakewood's Marlowe Avenue and opened his hardware venture 10 years later in an L-shaped building on the south-east corner of Madison and Warren.

In 1964, the business was relocated one door west -- from 14713 Madison to 14625 -- into a one-story brick building that formerly housed the Erlenmeyer Furniture Store.

Freese's new location was expanded to two stories in 1974, and a rear extension was added to the building four years later.

Albert and his wife, who died in 1952 when she was 60, had four children.

Daughter Alice, now 84, is a nun with the Sisters of Charity at Mt. Augustine Convent in West Richfield. Son Albert E. (Al) introduced a plumbing and heating service to the operation after World War II and managed it until his death at 70 in 1987.

Second daughter Myrtle Freese Ward died last year, and last child Marilyn, who married Bud Zenker in 1955, is store president now and sole owner.

Richard Smith of Lakewood joined the staff in 1975 and currently serves as vice president. Assisting in the plumbing end from 1955-70 were Erwin Krause of Westlake and Lakewoodites James Crowley and Harold Rydel. All three have passed away.

The reason for the closing is twofold. A new wave of strong competition from large discount outlets is a factor, but then, too, Zenker, who is 69, and Smith, 65, are considering retirement.

The building is being sold to a developer who, it is rumored, possibly may raze it to make room for a new business structure.

Zenker, who started in hardware as a wholesale salesman for Wm. Bingham Co. 51 years ago, remembers the early influx of discount stores, such as Giant Tiger, Uncle Bill's and Forest City, in the 1960s.

"We weathered that storm and had our heyday here from 1975-86," he said, "But, today, competition persists even greater than before, and our sales have fallen substantially,"

Bud, a native of Brecksville, and wife Marilyn have a son, Michael, who attended St. Edwards High School and was indoctrinated into hardware at Freese's.

Michael later worked for a time at a second store -- Freese Lorain-Dover Hardware -- that his father and uncle, Al E., opened in 1983 in North Olmsted, and was liquidated last year. In reminiscing over a half-century of changes, Zenker cited the advent of a great diversity of electronic, plastic, caulking and adhesive products, plus the introduction of numerous new paint applicators, such as spray cans, rollers and foam brushes.

"We inventoried more than 30,000 different hardware items in recent years, and where there used to be only a handful of colors to contend with, now there are thousands," he said.

Also, according to Zenker, the bulk storage and displays of the old days of barrels and bins have given way to modern transparent packaging and self-service-oriented wall-hanging of merchandise.

"The market, too, is changing," Zenker noted. "We're developing into a 'throwaway society,' with many customers now prone to buying new wares, such as toasters, rather than fixing the old."

But in assuring there still are plenty of distraught do-it-yourselfers seeking help, Zenker chuckled over an off-the-wall case that happened to him only a short time ago.

"A young lady drove into our parking lot with a big box in her car," he related amusedly. "It was a new bed she had just bought and was unable to assemble. She pleaded for assistance. We obliged and were glad to have been part and parcel of her sleeping comfortably that night."

This article by Dan Chabek appeared in the Lakewood Sun Post April 22, 1999. Reprinted with permission.

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