Fred Marsh, owner of Marsh Supply, far left, stands with employees Gary Jancart and Linda Mohoroski Friday afternoon. After 100 years in the Weirton community, Saturday will be the last day of business for the local hardware store. -- Craig Howell

WEIRTON – After 100 years in business, Marsh Supply Co. will close its doors for the final time this weekend.

Saturday is the last day of operation for the long-standing Weirton business, according to owner Fred Marsh.

“It’s been a good haul,” he said, while sitting in his office Friday afternoon.

An auction, to sell off remaining merchandise and other materials, will be held Sept. 11.

The business, which has been located at 3070 Pennsylvania Ave. since the mid-1980s, has been a family tradition, owned by four generations of the Marsh family.

Marsh said, even through the difficult times, the Weirton community has shown its support for the business.

“Even toward the end, people have said they’ll miss us,” Marsh noted.

Marsh Supply traces its history to 1921, when Fred Marsh’s great uncle, George H. Marsh, bought into the Purdy General Store in Weirton’s downtown. George Marsh would eventually take over the business, asking his brother, Milton Ross Marsh, Fred’s grandfather, to join, forming Marsh Brothers Hardware.

George Marsh would die in the early 1930s, with Milton purchasing full interest in the business and, eventually, a piece of land at the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and South 14th Street. In the midst of World War II, though, it became difficult to procure the materials to complete construction or generate cash, so he leased a building at 1201 Pennsylvania Ave.

The current store opened its doors in 1985.

As the years went by, the business was passed down through the family, going from Milton Marsh, who died in 1974, to Fred’s father, William F. Marsh, who died in 2014, and then to Fred.

Marsh noted Weirton, at one time, had around nine hardware stores, forcing them to find ways to make themselves unique in order to stay ahead of the competition.

“We’ve seen a lot of changes,” he said. “We’ve adapted over time.”

Those adaptations have included everything from selling lawn and garden items to kitchen appliances to toys and sporting goods in addition to all of the hardware store standards. In 1985, he said, the store featured 14,000 items for sale, going up to around 80,000 items on the shelves in recent years.

“We had to find something to fill the gap. We always did,” he said.

In recent years, though, Marsh said it has become difficult to find a lot of those items, with 2020 being especially difficult to the point the decision was made to no longer continue.

While the store is closing, the history of the business won’t be disappearing, as Marsh explained various items are being provided for display at the Weirton Area Museum and Cultural Center.

“A good bit of the old stuff we had, a lot of the documents, are on loan to the museum,” Marsh said.

(Howell can be contacted at chowell@weirtondailytimes.com, and followed via Twitter @CHowellWDT)