Crest Hardware In Williamsburg Closing After 62 Years

Crest Hardware is closing. What started as a rumor on r/Williamsburg and local group chats late last month was confirmed on Monday with a letter sent out to customers from owner Joseph Franquinha: “It’s with a heavy heart we write to inform you Crest Hardware and Urban Garden Center is closing its doors after 62 years.”

Franquinha’s father, Manny, opened the store at 558 Metropolitan Avenue with his brother Joe, in 1962. And while Franquinha, who took over nearly two decades ago, owns Crest outright, the lot it sits on belongs to the family. And the family, Franquinha says, has opted to sell the property: “I was outvoted.”

Photo: Courtesy Crest Hardware

Photo: Courtesy Crest Hardware

The neighborhood will miss it. The store changed along with Williamsburg, as much a destination for the plumbers and supers who had long relied on it for new pipes as it was for the artists haphazardly trying to convert their lofts into something livable to the more recent influx of condo-dwelling residents looking for a good succulent. There was a pig and a talking parrot. They made a lot of keys. And for a time, it was a community hub with a semi-regular art show, block parties with bands, and a few clothing-brand activations. People even got married there. “That predates me — that’s the vision and energy and spirit that my dad brought,” Franquinha says of the store’s evolution. “It’s never been just a store.” One employee, Franquinha says, has worked there for over 50 years.

But the low-rise shop sits on prime Williamsburg real estate where almost everything else has transformed or been demolished over the past decades. (Franquinha says the sale wasn’t about changing tenants, though it’s unclear what will happen to the lot.) The store’s final day will be August 30 — and, in true Crest fashion, they plan to throw a closing party. “We’ve been working our tails off to navigate through it as a store and emotionally navigate this with our staff and my wife,” Franquinha says. “I’m genuinely in love with what I do for a living.”