The iconic Brown’s Hardware Store at the intersection of W. Broad and N. Washington in downtown Falls Church will close its door for good on March 30 and its sale is slated to be completed April 1, according to a local website report. An ongoing business in Falls Church for 142 years, Brown’s Hardware has long been appreciated by locals as a friendly “go to” place where one could find almost anything.
With the passing of Hugh Rose Brown, the grandson of the founder, in November 2018, the business was left to his store manager, John Taylor, who has been the owner since.
Originally opened by a school teacher, James W. Brown, in 1883 as Brown’s Groceries and Hardware, the store was the Falls Church township’s first commercial business. James Brown died in 1907 and his son, Horace Brown, ran the store for 52 years until 1959, when Horace suffered a stroke and died. In 1949 the store had shifted from being a general store to being solely a hardware store.
Hugh Brown, born in 1926 to Horace and Augusta Rose Brown, took over running the store upon his father’s death in 1959. A lifelong bachelor, he operated the store from 1959 for 60 years until his death at age 92.
A pocket park a few doors down from the Brown’s Hardware location on W. Broad was renovated and named in honor of Hugh as “Mr. Brown’s Park” in 2019.
At that time, the Falls Church City Council approved a proclamation in honor of Hugh Brown, declaring December 8 as “Hugh Brown Day” and stating that “Brown’s Hardware remains a cornerstone of the City’s downtown business district and a classic American hardware store amidst a world of big box and online stores,” and declaring Brown, as a lifelong resident of the City who attended Madison Elementary and Jefferson High School, was known as a kind and generous man and a strong supporter of the City.”
Brown’s Hardware has quite literally been a shining remnant of the spirit of what Falls Church has always represented since becoming an independent city in 1949, humbly yet efficiently serving the community in a veritable mutual admiration society.
While the dates of the closing and of the sale have been made public via the Falls Church Pulse website, nothing has yet been announced concerning the buyer and any future uses for the store site.
John Taylor, who himself came to work at Brown’s Hardware in 1997, revealed only that the prospective new buyer will seek a five or ten year lease. While Taylor was left the business, Brown’s heirs, Charles Brown of Augusta, Georgia, and cousins throughout the east coast, own the land on which the business sits, including areas of the parking lot in the rear. The City’s assessed value of the property is $1,322,400 in 2024.