By Stephen Smoot
Few businesses weave their way into the foundation of a community quite like a hardware and lumber store. Do it yourselfers mix with contractors and other business owners. Lots of conversations about nothing in particular get started, punctuated often by sage (or sometimes not-so-sage) advice on how to do a job a little easier or a little better.
A town hardware and lumber store brings together more than customers and products. Indeed, they represent a community effect greater than the sum of its parts.
That “greater” effect extends outward like ripples in a pond and includes the typical proud small business support granted happily to area organizations, such as youth sports leagues, and different projects for community improvement.
The company was born in the mid 1930s in a North Central West Virginia wracked by both the Great Depression and also a decade of seemingly endless high temperatures, dry conditions, and severe drought. As A. L. Vincent & Son, the business included a sawmill and lumberyard and operated first at 34 Station Street, then in 1963 moved to 347 South Pike Street.
There, it adopted the name Vincent Lumber. The family also owned and operated Vincent Concrete, also in Shinnston. The family sold the company approximately a decade ago.
One of the aspects of the company that made it special, and helped it to build strong bonds with the Shinnston area, was the dedication of the family to its operation. Bob Vincent and his brother Ronnie steered the company for decades until the early 1990s.
Bob Vincent, a devout Christian, dedicated himself to not only his own business, but the Lord’s as well. His obituary told of “spending many hours at his prayer wall,” giving presentations to churches on the topic of “You Can’t Out-Give God,” and enjoying his family.
Louie Smith and his wife Diane assumed control of the business and operated it until 2018. As health problems mounted, the family sold the shop in 2018.
He told the Shinnston News and Harrison County Journal at the time that “I’ve been here working ever since I got out of the Navy; that was 52 years ago,” Louie said. “And Diane and her niece Tammy have been running the office steadily since 1990. It’s time to turn the page, and both Diane and I are very pleased that the doors will not be closing. There will just be someone much younger running the business and we feel quite confident that he will do a great job.”
The incoming owner was Jeffrey Chalfant, who since three years before the age he could legally purchase alcohol, has operated as an entrepreneurial force of nature in and around Harrison County. Chalfant also owns three East of Chicago Pizza restaurants, starting with a location in Shinnston, expanding to Bridgeport, and opening a third location in Salem. His portfolio also includes a storage unit business.
Chalfant related to the Shinnston News at the time that “Originally, my dad and I inquired about the former Dairy Queen/Brazier facility property that the Vincent family owned,” he explained. “But when we learned that they wanted to sell both properties as one package, we thought it over and decided to go for it! I would still like to put in a restaurant there at some point, but those thoughts will be pushed forward. This business will be my prime focus right now.”
At Vincent Lumber, he kept the faithful staff and tried to introduce technology advances to sales and records.
He understood in 2018 that he had purchased not merely a business, but a legacy as well. “We’ve never not given support for the community,” Chalfant said recently, then added “you always want to show your support.”
For a time, Vincent Lumber benefited from the sharp changes that the COVID pandemic brought. Many had money in their pockets and nowhere to go but work and home. “Business got better. Everyone had extra money.”
Economic growth and development helped Vincent Lumber to an extent, but also served as a magnet for lumber and hardware companies with more supplies in stock, economics of scale that gave them advantages over the traditional “mom and pop” stores, and slowly eroded the Vincent Lumber customer base.
The legacy of Vincent Lumber and the family who served as its steward for so long remains important to Chalfant. He wishes that while the building still retain the character it developed under the Vincents, including the name, that it serve a solid and useful community purpose as well.
“We don’t have anything set in stone,” he shared, but offered that he had heard from potential business interests that include food and retail.
He also shared that small town communities need to come up with ways to help the small businesses that both support the community and also work in competition with other companies that have significant advantages over “mom and pop” shops.