177-Year-Old Mount Pleasant Hardware Store Auctioning Off Inventory

MOUNT PLEASANT (KDKA) -- A family-owned hardware store that served customers for nearly two centuries in Mount Pleasant is auctioning off a timeless inventory.

Lycippus Hardware and Supply is so old, it has its own street sign.

The weather-beaten building has stood at the corner of routes 130 and 982 in Mount Pleasant for 177 years. And much of the inventory seems almost that old.

Chuck Mozingo, 85, says he was a constant customer, before he bought the shop 44 years ago.

"I was hoping to protect it and keep it as it was down through the next generation," he said. "But this just wasn't going to happen."

His inventory and prices couldn't compete when the big box stores moved in. So he's taken on auctioneer Bill Frye to sell off the entire inventory, all three floors of it. Frye says the first auction will feature an eclectic mix of basement items.

"I have the old bulbs for the lightning rods," Frye said. "Old poultry items. Chicken feeder. Even the old kids' lunchboxes."

Many of the items are geared toward antique collectors, and farm natives with a sense of nostalgia. Arnold Palmer even shot a commercial for Penzoil in this store, back in the early '80s.

The first auction takes place August 12.

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