NEW BEGINNINGS ON BURLINGTON
While many independent
businesses change hands in the family when ownership is transferred to the next generation, for Trip and Susan Chastain it’s the next best thing. When the long-running Chastain Hardware & Lumber on Spur’s Burlington Avenue becomes Spur Hardware next week under the ownership of Jeremy and D’laine Rutledge, the store will be run by a Spur native whom Susan once taught in kindergarten, the Rutledges’ son Cade.
“For the future of Spur, this way, we knew them and trusted them,” said Trip, who explained that he and his wife had not sought to sell the business. But the proposal that was put to the couple a few months ago gave them much to think and pray about. Soon they came around, especially after considering the freedom they would have to at last fully enjoy their Breckenridge lake house.
Furthermore, the change will allow the Chastains to better appreciate the next chapter of their lives—as grandparents. In a few short weeks they’re expecting first grandchild Anderson in Dallas. (A baby shower will eventually be slated for Spur, where the couple will continue to live part-time.)
A dream of business ownership
Trip Chastain didn’t grow up in Spur, but he always cherished a dream to live in the small town where his grandfather had once served as pharmacist and John Deere dealer. Neal Allison Chastain Sr., a 32nd degree Mason and a Shriner, came to Spur in 1933 with his wife, Christine, and there they raised a son, Neal Allison Jr.
Trip’s father graduated from Spur High and, after marriage and completion of degrees at Texas Tech, became an educator and coach in South Plains schools from Crosbyton to Amherst, Ralls and Slaton, and eventually to the superintendent’s post at Lamesa ISD. Neal Chastain and his wife, Jerre, spent most of their years in Lamesa, where son Neal Allison III—“Trip,” the third to bear the name—and his sister Judy would grow up.
Like his father, Trip pursued a degree in education. It was at Angelo State University that Trip met his future wife, Susan, also an education major. And though in the early years of their marriage Trip managed a Midland shoe store while Susan taught school, he never let go of his dream to own his own business—and live in Spur.
“We wanted to raise our kids in a small town,” said Trip. “We were just looking everywhere.”
Opportunity in Spur
In the early 1990s, Trip and Susan spotted an ad offering a closed-down Spur building for sale. The former White’s Auto, which had been a car dealership before that at the corner of 5th and Burlington, had shut down.
Owner Bennie Ball, Trip said, told the Chastains that the town could still use a hardware store. At the time Day & Day Lumberyard carried many construction materials, but not the full range of home, auto, and hardware a small town might need.
Trip and Susan took the plunge, opening Chastain Hardware in the front part of the space in 1990.
Susan began teaching kindergarten at Spur Elementary, providing what was at first the couple’s only means of support. Not only did Susan sacrifice her position in Midland, Trip said, they got by on a teacher’s salary for several years.
But in Spur they found the small-town values they had long sought. Their two children, daughter Allison, now 33 and a physician’s assistant at the Baylor Health Care System in Dallas, and son Michael, 29, a gas operator in Bastrop, were raised and educated in Spur. “They loved growing up here and were into ag, sports,” said Trip. The family felt their Spur years were “a really good experience.”
Growth and opportunity
Over the years, Chastain expanded from a small retail outlet to an enterprise occupying multiple buildings and lots around the original store.
Starting with one storefront room facing Burlington Avenue and one part-time employee, the store carried a suitable range of plumbing, electrical, home repair, and building tools, hardware, and supplies. “We worked till midnight” many evenings, said Trip. The business eventually grew to offer building materials and lumber after buying out Day & Day.
Chastain expanded four times over the years and also acquired a warehouse on 5th Ave. During at time, Chastain became first a TrueValue retailer (a brand many locals still informally call it) and then Do it Best, a chain that Trip has found to be a good fit.
In time Susan joined the enterprise as bookkeeper, as the business grew. Today Chastain Hardware & Lumber employs five full-time staff, among whom assistant manager Monica Ortiz Cornett is the longest-tenured, at 11 years.
One of the most unusual—and profitable—lines Trip and Susan have added in recent years was metal art from Laredo, imported from Mexico. “Everybody loves it,” said Susan, “and it draws out-of-town buyers too.”
The couple have made 11 trips to the border in 18 months to restock. But they expect soon to be making more local excursions—to the home on Lake Hubbard Creek, conveniently situated for family to gather from various corners of Texas.
Time to retire
It wasn’t lost on Trip or Susan that they “weren’t getting any relaxing done” at the lake house in recent years, as Trip put it. Though they had purchased the second home for that purpose, it became even harder to keep up with two houses and a business in multiple cities.
So when the Rutledge—who also have beep family roots in Spur—approached them, the Chastains knew they might not have another chance to make such a favorable transfer.
“It’s a very emotional thing to give up the store,” said Trip. “It’s my social life. I get to go to work and visit with 50 of my friends.”
Circumstances worked out well, though speedily. Trip and Susan quickly renovated a smaller house in Spur and downsized, selling their larger home to Spur neighbors.
Jeromy and D’laine Rutledge, who relocated to the family home south of Spur last summer, will take over January 1, 2020, and reopen the following day as Spur Hardware, keeping the Do it Best branding and all current Chastain employees except one who has accepted a position elsewhere in town. Rutledge sons Cade and Carson plan to join the enterprise soon afterward.
In addition to the new business name, the new owners “are going to bring new ideas, energy, and enthusiasm,” said Trip.
As for the retiring owners, they already have their grandparent nicknames chose, said Susan. as Lolli and Pops (yes, Lolli-pops) they’ll be eager to spend time with that soon-to-arrive grandson. And of course, when asked if they’re ready for the big change, they replied, “With the exception of getting to see people every day, yes . . . and we will finally get to fish!”
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