Scott Evans was hired to work at Lemoi Ace Hardware by Alfred Dupuis, a former World War II Seabee who owned the store until he passed away in 1981.
47 years later, Evans can still be found directing customers on the retail floor as the store manager.
What’s more, it’s still a Dupuis who spends his days in the attic-turned-office above the shop, sending emails, managing accounts and purchasing inventory. Ralph Lemoi Dupuis carries his father’s surname, but his middle name comes from his grandfather and great-grandfather. It’s the name displayed across the storefront that has been in Dupuis’ family for four generations.
Founded in 1895 by Dupuis’ great-grandfather, Peter Lemoi, Lemoi Ace Hardware is Evanston’s longest-running retailer. Over its 131 years, the story of the 1008 Davis Street storefront has become one of legacy — of longtime employees like Evans and generational ownership.
As he enters his seventies with four adult children scattered across the country, Dupuis believes he’ll be the last of his line to own the store.
‘Fate has it’
Dupuis’ great-grandfather, Peter, was one half of the Peterson-Lemoi tinner business that serviced potbelly stoves in 1894, according to Dupuis. In 1895, he broke off to open Lemoi Ace Hardware.
Since the beginning, the store has been run as a co-op of the Ace Hardware corporation. While the family runs the store as they please, Ace Hardware supplies their inventory.
The original store was a small segment of the Davis Street property it now occupies. Dupuis’ grandfather, Ralph H. Lemoi, was a World War I Marine and one of President Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, according to Dupuis. A paint salesman originally, he was reluctant to take over the store, but eventually joined the family business.
Dupuis said Ralph moved the store out of its original location into an empty meat-packing house next door. In the early ’60s, Lemoi Ace Hardware bought its original space back as an add-on.
It was Ralph who encouraged his daughter Shirley Lemoi’s fiancé, Alfred, to step into the family business, Dupuis said.
“He got back from World War II and was going to go to college on the GI Bill,” Dupuis said. “He married my mom, and my grandfather said, ‘You can’t learn the hardware business in college,’ so my dad started working here.”
Dupuis said he spent a lot of time in the store as a “little guy” while his mom kept the books and his dad worked. If he behaved, they’d let him go down the street to Bennison’s Bakery and get a sugar cookie. To this day, he’s friendly with Bennison’s owner.
As a teenager, Dupuis worked at the store delivering heavy drums of ice melt for his dad during school breaks. Before work, they’d get breakfast on Church Street with “a couple of firemen, a couple of policemen.” Dupuis said Alfred knew everyone.
Alfred’s death came suddenly at age 58. He suffered an aortic aneurysm in the back of a taxi. Dupuis was recently out of college, working as an accountant at a big firm. He never planned to take over the store but agreed to work there temporarily until his younger brother graduated college and could take over. Dupuis said his brother always wanted the business.
“Well, fate has it, I never left, and he never came in,” Dupuis said.
‘The greatest little hardware store around’
Dupuis said his business is stable and largely recession-proof.
“There’s been a few times where we’ve had to get a line of credit, but not that many,” Dupuis said. “I’m a big believer in keeping relationships, as long as they do the job. I don’t go shop price on everything because once you establish that relationship, that’s how we do business here.”
More than anything, Dupuis said it’s those relationships that keep Lemoi Ace Hardware strong.
According to 8th Ward resident Don Verdon, a customer since the ’70s, he continues to frequent the store because its employees are knowledgeable. If they can’t give you an immediate answer, he said, they’ll do research and find a solution.
“I started going there because another neighbor said it was the greatest little hardware store around in Evanston, and it is,” Verdon said.
Dupuis said receiving bad Yelp reviews makes him “ballistic.” Keeping store culture warm and friendly is crucial to him.
“We know our customers’ names for the most part. They know our names,” Dupuis said. “I’ll be downstairs at the cashiers doing something and one of our old-time customers will go, ‘Oh my God, look what the cat blew in. Where have you been?’ And I just laugh. I go, ‘Upstairs napping!’”
Evans, whom Alfred hired right out of high school, said his almost 50 years at Lemoi Ace Hardware haven’t been repetitive. At the store, he said “it’s always something different.”
According to Evans, the employees have enough trade experience to speak confidently about the products and give solid advice. It’s a casual atmosphere, but the work is fulfilling to Evans.
“It’s always that somebody’s got a project that’s really important to them,” Evans said. “It’s just an everyday thing to us, but if we can help them out with it, if you look at the big picture, it’s a big deal.”
‘I’ve got no regrets’
More than being the owner of a longtime Evanston establishment, Dupuis is connected to the Evanston and Northwestern communities through his love for NU sports.
In 2011, when Dupuis went septic from diverticulosis surgery and “came really close to dying,” his wife, Bette Pederson Dupuis, pushed him to take a step back from work and enjoy sports. He began taking Saturdays off to go to football games.
“My wife has always loved Northwestern football,” Dupuis said. “She is a nurse. When (former Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald) broke his leg when he was a player here … she took care of him in the hospital.”
After his emergency, Dupuis and Bette got season tickets and began to tailgate. To Dupuis, it was reminiscent of childhood NU gamedays sitting with his dad in the stands, wrapped in a sleeping bag to stay warm.
For Dupuis, NU is a large part of the story of Lemoi Ace Hardware. He said one of Peterson-Lemoi’s first large projects in 1894 was fixing the stoves in Willard Residential College, and the store continues to do business with the University.
It’s likely that Lemoi Ace Hardware will leave the bloodline when Dupuis steps down. Dupuis said none of his four children want to assume ownership. According to him, either Ace Hardware will absorb it as a corporate store or a new owner will step in.
Dupuis compared the situation to when he saw his childhood home get demolished. Shirley and Alfred built it in 1955 when Dupuis was born, right next to the 1952 Lemoi family home that Dupuis lives in now. He said he wasn’t sad to see it become an empty lot, just as he won’t mourn the loss of familial ownership at the store.
“Whatever happens here happens. The kids are gone, and I put all four through college,” Dupuis said. “I’ve got no regrets.”
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