FROM RATCHETS TO HATCHETS; NEWHALL HARDWARE STORE TURNS 50.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

Fifty years ago, a young World War II veteran opened a shop on what was then called Spruce Street, selling nuts and bolts, tools and paint to residents of a sparsely populated, largely rural community.

Flash forward to 1997; that former Army Air Corps pilot is gray-haired now, and his business has become a community fixture on San Fernando Road. He still stops by every day to handle some of the bookkeeping and walk through the narrow aisles, stacked high with all manner of home and garden supplies.

Newhall Hardware will mark its 50th anniversary Aug. 16 with a parking lot celebration, open to the public, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Don Guglielmino, 77, has been the store's proprietor since that summer Saturday in 1947. Besides the ownership, a few other things haven't changed in 50 years.

Flavor of the past

The clerks still ring up purchases on decidedly un-modern cash registers, not fancy computerized models with laser wands that scan merchandise bar codes and print out itemized receipts.

Much of their inventory is the same sort of merchandise Newhall Hardware has carried since its inception. Contractors of all sorts - construction, plumbing, electrical - have come to depend on the store's stock of pipe fittings, nails, screws, washers, clamps and couplings.

``They have every type of gizmo and widget you can imagine,'' said Doug Wubbena , a consultant who has represented Guglielmino in various real estate transactions, including his sale of 1.6 acres of land to the city for street widening and construction of a Metrolink station in downtown Newhall.

Wubbena launches into Dr. Seuss-style rhyme when describing Newhall Hardware.

``Nuts, bolts, pipe fittings, tools. Ratchets, hatchets, guns and stools,'' he said. ``Chains and rope, cattle prods, glue. Screws and nails, buggy whips too.''

Besides the hardware business, Guglielmino branched out: he owned Newhall Electric, Newhall-Valencia Plumbing, the California Apartments and Newhall Ice, co-workers said. He served on the board of directors of Santa Clarita National Bank since 1966 - a year after the bank was founded - and was chairman of the bank for many years.

In November 1990, Santa Clarita National Bank - which had 11 branches - was acquired for $40.2 million by the now-defunct Security Pacific National Bank chain, itself swallowed up a few years later by Bank of America.

Over the years, Wubbena said, Guglielmino's various business interests have been sold off. But he hung onto his first enterprise, Newhall Hardware.

Customer loyalty

And in an era when giant chain stores like Home Depot and Home Base dominate the do-it-yourself home improvement markets, the loyal base of customers that Newhall Hardware has cultivated over five decades keep coming back for those hard-to-find items or just for friendly service from familiar faces.

Corky Randall, 68, has shopped for 30 years at Newhall Hardware, for supplies he needs in his business as a horse trainer and livestock coordinator for the entertainment industry. Randall said he recently completed work on ``The Mask of Zorro,'' starring Antonio Banderas and Anthony Hopkins.

``They have automatic waterers for the horse stalls. They have all the leather tools, they have buckles and rivets,'' Randall said. ``They have quite a variety of horse equipment.''

But the inventory isn't the only niche Newhall Hardware has carved in the Santa Clarita Valley. ``That's another thing - I get good advice there. If you tell them what you're trying to do, then they help you find what you need,'' Randall said.

``A lot of the motion picture companies, like Disney Ranch, every once in a while they need some oddball thing. So they send everybody to Newhall Hardware,'' Randall added.

Unusual stock

``They know they can go there and find just about anything,'' he said. ``They have the old Dutch ovens. They had the little pot-bellied stoves (and) the old galvanized washtubs.''

And snowshoes, wooden washboards - many of which they sell to the California Institute of the Arts music department, a store employee noted - hand-crank ice cream barrels, boot scrapers, snow shovels, weather vanes, fishing lures, household appliances, ceramic camping cookware and lanterns.

Displayed just inside the front door are gold-panning tins, as though prospectors are among Newhall Hardware's biggest customers.

Ask Guglielmino what is his favorite piece of inventory, the item he is particularly proud to carry, and he heads straight for the shelves of heavy, cast-iron skillets, griddles and cookware. Solid, well-made, likely to endure for generations and work as well today as they did in the pioneer days.

Bailey Haskell, a lifetime resident of the Santa Clarita Valley, said he has known Guglielmino since the store opened. The owner of rental properties, Haskell said he always needed supplies to keep the units in good repair, not to mention countless gallons of paint every time one tenant moved out.

``He's been a great businessman. Anything we wanted, if he didn't have it in the store, he'd order it for us,'' Haskell said.

``Chances are, the other discount warehouses would never have heard of it,'' Wubbena added.

And though, all these years, Guglielmino has lived in Glendale, Newhall has been an adopted hometown that he has watched grow from the vantage point of his shop's windows onto San Fernando Road.

``The man . . . loves Newhall, and he loves hardware,'' Wubbena said. ``There aren't too many businesses that make it to their 50th anniversary,'' he said.

``As you walk down the aisles of the store . . . you've got shelves stacked so high with merchandise, and you can see the glow on Don's face. It really reflects that he loves all of his inventory.''

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

PHOTO (1--color) Don Guglielmino, 77, the original owner of Newhall Hardware, still stops by every day to handle some of the bookkeeping chores.

(2) Don Guglielmino's store offers what some chain stores can't - advice and hard-to-find items.

Hans Gutknecht/Daily News