Gray's Hardware is truly our local, hometown hardware shop and has been for the past 80 years!

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Located at the western end of downtown Ridge at the corner of Middle Country and Smith Roads, Gray's is owned and operated by siblings Scott Wood and Holly Wood, whose grandparents first opened the doors of the shop in November 1943.

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Scott and Holly are familiar faces to  generations of Ridge residents who eschew big box stores and prefer having a friendly neighbor locate exactly what we need close to home, making our home improvement projects quicker and a bit easier. If Scott and Holly don't have what you need in stock, they'll order it right up for you. You'll also want to check out their garden center in the back, filled with seasonal plants and home decor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Wood siblings know customer service—it's in their blood. In the early 1930s, George and Carrie Gray of College Point, Queens, purchased ten acres of land in Ridge for $1,000. Shortly after, they opened a restaurant called Gray's Pine Rest (shown in picture at left above; you can see George entering the door on the left side of the photo). They operated the restaurant for several years and tried to turn it into a sports bar but were unwilling to pay the "gratuity" in order to obtain a liquor license. 

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So in November 1943, George and Carrie converted it into Gray's Hardware and Paints. At this time, Route 25 was still a dirt road (Carrie is shown posing in front of the shop in center photo above). They sold hardware, paints, electrical supplies, and home furnishings to local residents. They pumped kerosene that area homes needed to cook on their stoves as well as to light the lamps that brightened their homes. Many of their regular local customers would have their purchases entered into a ledger kept behind the counter and would pay at the end of the month if they could.

 

Sometime during the 1950s, they renovated the front of the shop to have the brick facing that's so familiar to Ridge residents today (George can be seen again in picture at right above). Carrie Gray died in 1963, and when George Gray died in 1969, his daughter Gloria and son-in-law Robert Wood took over the store. 

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Gloria and Robert ran the store until 1985 when their son Scott took over the business, to be later joined by his sister Holly Wood. Scott and Holly continue to operate Gray's Hardware and Paints by the principles that their grandparents and parents valued and built the business on: friendliness and service to the community. 

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So now you know that the next time you swing by Gray's Hardware, you are not only supporting a wonderful local business, you are also helping to keep a piece of Ridge history alive.