Roberts Bros. True Value closing after 90 years

Almost seven months after announcing the store was for sale, the shelves at Roberts Bros. True Value are becoming bare as the windows flash with “Closing Sale” and “Everything Must Go” signs. The Prairie City staple is closing up shop at the end of the month after 90 years in business.

As the months have wore on, owners Mike and Ginny Dalton have been engrossed on the process of selling a business and all of the “stuff” that comes along with it.

“It has been a painful process in a lot of ways but it has been fun, too,” Ginny said. “We go to the back room and say ‘oh, I remember that shelf from the old grocery store.’ It has been fun finding some of these old finds.”

Opened by brothers Ralph and Wiley Roberts, the hardware store has seen many incarnations including offering groceries, a bakery, a coffee shop and a stockyard. Ginny said her grandfather, Ralph, and great uncle processed all their own meat and made fresh bologna once per week. There was also the Robert’s Bros. lumber yard, which provided both materials and labor for building many Prairie City homes that still stand today.

The business moved from its original location on the square to its current building at 203 S. Madison St. in 1973 after the Dalton’s took the keys from Ginny’s father, Raymond, and her uncle, Harold. Along with their son, Kevin, the Dalton’s have provided a variety of goods and services, beyond just that of a hardware store, to the citizens for decades.

“At one point, we were everything to everybody in town because this is where they came, but that changed, life changes,” Ginny said.

Among the rows of shelves and items that adorn the walls are various keepsakes the Dalton’s will take home with them after shutting the doors for the final time. Ginny said an ice cream table and four chairs set will go to her sister to be placed in an art gallery and Bob, the wooden man cutout that greets customers, has a few options with locals inquiring about taking him home.

“My daughter texted me yesterday saying she was trying to think of something that she wanted for remembrance. She decided on the clock because ‘I spent a lot of hours looking at that clock waiting for it to be 6 o’clock,’” Ginny said. “There are just different things. There is a little, tiny file cabinet that is up on the desk and I always remember it being on my grandma’s desk and so that’s going to my house.”

A house, that Ginny said, her and Mike plan to continue living in after the business is closed and gone.

“We have had so many people that have asked us, where are you moving to?” Ginny said. “We’re staying here, this is our home.”

Mike added now they will just get to stay in bed a little longer and not have to open the store by 8 a.m. every day.

With the building yet to find a buyer, the couple has listed it with a realtor in hopes of getting it sold, even if it will no longer be a hardware store.

“We would love for it to remain a hardware store but this is too big of a building for this size of town and what the community used us for,” Ginny said. “I would love for there to still be a hardware store in town, but it would have to be much smaller.”

For the next few weeks, the couple will continue liquidating their stock, receive well-wishes from long-time customers and begin saying good-bye to the business that has been always been a part of their lives.

Contact Jamee A. Pierson at 641-792-3121 ext. 6534 or jpierson@newtondailynews.com