O'Neill's Hardware: Everything But the Kitchen Sink

In 1868, Joseph O’Neill opened Lake Forest’s first hardware store, O’Neill’s Hardware. First located on Western Avenue near the current location of Gerhard’s, sales for the initial $1,000 worth of stock were so brisk that in 1869, the store moved half a block south, opposite the train station, and expanded.

O’Neill’s offered a diverse range of goods to appeal to a growing community. A 1905 newspaper advertisement lists: house furnishings, paints, oils, cutlery, tools, sporting goods, building papers, glass, stoves and ranges and garden supplies. In the autumn, displays of hunting equipment appealed to those who journeyed up to the country for sport.

After an 1882 fire burned much of the small downtown, Joseph O’Neill erected Lake Forest’s first brick business house for the hardware store. In 1913, with the Market Square shopping center in the works, O’Neill’s relocated to Westminster just east of Western Avenue. The new building was large enough to house Lake Forest’s first movie theater alongside the hardware store.

The shop became a Lake Forest staple, operating for 130 years, 120 of them family-run. It passed down through four generations of Joseph O’Neills. In 1976, it was sold to Georgia and Bob Buckholtz and became O’Neill’s TrueValue Hardware. They retired in 1997; the store building was sold and demolished.


