image description — Aubuchon Hardware has been on Union Street since 1987.

North Adams Aubuchon Closing Doors After 36 Years

Staff Reports11:04AM / Wednesday, October 04, 2023Print Story | Email Story

The store's cats Abbey and Shawna will be transferred to the Williamstown store.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Aubuchon Hardware on Union Street will be closing this fall after 36 years.

The interim store manager Scott Wascher made the announcement on his Facebook page Tuesday. He was not immediatley available to speak to iBerkshires yesterday.

The closing is due to "falling sales and location," Wascher posted.

The store opened at 41 Union, in what had been a Carr's Hardware, in September 1987. The company's then owner, William Aubuchon, had attended the opening.

The family-owned chain has more than 100 stores in Northeast and dates to 1908. Last month, Aubuchon Company acquired J.B. Hostetter & Sons in Mount Joy, Pa.

Residents won't be without a hardware store, though they may have to travel a little farther to the Williamstown location. Also, Carr Hardware opened a 10,000-square-foot store on State Road in 2012 and a new hardware and lumberyard, Duke's, is opening on Saturday on Curran Highway.

The store will hold a clearance sale beginning Oct. 14 and its hours, starting Tuesday, are 8 to 5 on weekdays; it will be closed on weekends. It's not clear how many employees will be affected by the closure and those at the store expressed disappointment at the news.

Abbey and Shawna, the store's cats, are expected to move to the Williamstown store to work with Matt and Annette Moullan. Employees also had said they could have a home with a former store manager.

"The Williamstown store will take over serving our customers in the area," Wascher wrote. "We would like to thank our customers for the continued support throughout the years."

Tags: business closing, hardware,

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MCLA Graduation Highlights Love, Kindness, Justice

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
05:28PM / Saturday, May 17, 2025

MCLA James Birge awaits the graduates' traditional walk through the college's gates on the way to commencement. See more photos here.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — MCLA's Class of 2025 was reminded to move forward with love, kindness, and pursuing what is just.

"I grew up wanting to be like my grandmother. When my grandmother was alive, she always talked about us living in the end times, but somehow her acceptance that we were living in the world's last movement made her capacity for kindness even higher. It made her want to be better at love," said keynote speaker Kiese Laymon, an award-winning author and Rice University professor.

"She understood that all great human beings do not get a ceremony, but we must be ceremonious to all human beings in this world."

Per tradition, graduates marched through the iron gates on Church Street before receiving 187 undergraduate and 38 graduate degrees in the sciences, arts, business, education, and more. This was the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts' 126th annual commencement.

"MCLA is a small institution, but it delivers big results," said Paul Paradiso, who earned a master of business administration.

"I'm standing here alone only because I've been surrounded by a community of students and faculty. We're here because of both group effort and individual drive. We work independently on projects, yet none of us got here entirely on our own."

President James Birge reminded students that this day is a culmination of years of academic work and accomplishment.

"During your time at MCLA, you have compiled a long list of accomplishments and inspired us with your success in the classroom, in the lab, on the stage, in the gallery, on the athletic playing surfaces, and in the community. You've studied abroad, conducted research, participated in service trips and internships, and created community service programs to meet the needs you saw in our community," he said.

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