Story Photos
 Wally Wright cuts and threads a pipe for customer Maurice Mooers at Wright Pro Hardware in Cathlamet. Bill Wagner / The Daily News
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The Wright stuff ... for 75 years
Monday, September 22, 2008 12:07 AM PDT
By Erik Olson
Printable version
E-mail this articleCATHLAMET - When Wally Wright walks to the back of his hardware store to thread a pipe, he doesn't think of the room as his workshop.
It's the bedroom that his grandfather, Eugene, and father, Art, shared when they opened Wright Hardware and Furniture Store 75 years ago. It's near the room where Wright slept as a boy, and the kitchen where the family made meals while living in the oldest hardware store in Wahkiakum County.
"We've been a keystone of this community, this way of life, for many years," Wright, 61, said.
Now known as Wright Pro Hardware, the business celebrated three-quarters of a century of family ownership on Sept. 3. Wright, a member of the Cathlamet City Council and the local fire department, has run the store for the past 23 years.
Wright Hardware and Furniture was born in Cathlamet as a child of the Great Depression. The family had tried to open a store in four different towns along the Columbia River in the early 1930s with no luck.
Finally, with the business failing in Tillamook, Ore., Wright's uncle, Otis, a traveling salesman, ended up in Cathlamet.
Shortly after he arrived in the bustling town, Uncle Otis recognized an opportunity for the family business, Wright said.
"Dad, you've got to come to Cathlamet," Otis later told his father. "They don't know there's a Depression if you don't tell them."
Eugene and Otis did come, and opened Wright Hardware and Furniture in an old creamery building.
The store has been run almost solely by family members, and Wally Wright can remember working there with his brother as a teenager. He took over the business after his father died in 1985.
At that point, his mother, Effie Wright, became the store's most loyal employee, sitting in her rocking chair and helping customers as the voice of Wright Pro Hardware, Wally Wright said. She died this spring at the age of 90.
Now Wright mans the store by himself, aided only by his 3-year-old Brittany spaniel, Mark, who eagerly greets customers at the door.
Wright said helping people find what they need at a good price is what has kept him in business for so long. But it's getting harder. Most people in Wahkiakum County commute out of town to work, and it's easy for them to pick up what they need at big box stores such as Lowe's or Home Depot in Longview, he said.
Given those realities, he realizes that the hardware store will probably retire when he does, Wright said. "I have a feeling that when (I'm) done, it's done."
Wright Pro Hardward is open from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. For more information, call 795-3753 or toll-free at (800) 756-2776.
Longview Timber gets good audit
An independent auditor has given its blessing to Longview Timber's new sustainable forestry program, the company announced last week.
Auditing firm QMI SAI Global conducted an examination of the company's operations, records and policies to certify Longview Timber's 585,000 acres of forestland in Oregon and Washington, according to the company.
"Our certification is a very important milestone for us and is part of our commitment to sustainable management," Longview Timber President Blake Rowe said in a statement.
Longview Timber is owned by Canadian firm Brookfield Management Associates.
Talking Business is a weekly column about business openings, closings or major changes. Contact reporter Erik Olson with any business news tips at eolson@tdn.com or at 577-2510.
1972 wrote on Sep 22, 2008 8:08 AM:
Louie wrote on Sep 22, 2008 4:07 PM:
Kudos for all the years of devotion to your hardware business you and your family have given to the area.
Best of luck in your retirement when it happens. "
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