Described as the “7-Eleven version of a hardware store” by owner Lucy White, who runs the store with her husband Terry White, Eugene True Value Hardware offers customers the options of buying canning jars, hammers, bike lights and nails all under one roof. “We’re a convenience store, a very large convenience store,” Lucy says.

This year, the convenience-hardware store turns 100.

In 1925, Lucy’s grandfather, Gilbert MacLaren, purchased Eugene Hardware Co. — a family joke being that he only bought the business so he could find a job for his brother. Originally, the store was located on Broadway and Oak but moved to its current location on Willamette Street in 1962. Eventually, Lucy’s father, Donald MacLaren, took over the business and constructed a building next to True Value in 1979.

In

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