It All Started with Frank Anton Klein
- Deb Kluz Baker
- Jul 31
- 10 min read
Thank you to all of you who read and enjoyed my article on the Midway Tavern (Bernard’s Restaurant). Your encouragement is greatly appreciated. Good advice says that “when you are starting to write, you should write about something you are familiar with.”
Taking that advice, I know more than a little about this article's topic as well.
When I contacted Rick (Eric) and TJ (Theodore John) Klein about the prospect of writing an article about their business, Rick made it clear that he would do so “only if,” as he put it “you make sure to include the role that your family (mother, father, uncle and cousin) played in the history of Frank’s Hardware store.” That was very humbling to me, because even though many years have passed, I remembered how much the Kline family and their store meant to each member of my family.
I hope that you enjoy my story, and theirs, on the history of one of Stevens Point’s most iconic and genuinely appreciated stores.
Have you ever wondered about . . .
In the fall of 2023, it happened. The one thing that every home warrior, handyperson and professional contractor of any ability had dreaded; Frank’s Hardware announced it was closing its doors. A collective gasp went up, as long-time Stevens Point residents realized that the community would never be quite the same.
Countless patrons had entered Frank’s Hardware seeking that one necessary gadget, that no other store seemed to have on hand and not only left the store with that gadget, but usually the complete knowledge of how to install and/or use it because Frank’s employees were notorious for providing not only the impossible to find, but it’s proper use, to boot.
We had to expect that this day would come along. Many small-town hardware stores such as Frank’s have succumbed to the corporate “Big Boys” like Lowe’s and Home Depot for the last several decades, but Frank's had survived. We were all hoping that this fate would escape our small town for decades to come. But alas, the time was here, and our little nod to a simpler, more personalized shopping experience was about to close its doors. The concluding chapter came with the final closing of the front doors of the building, but this story is how Frank’s Hardware started and what made it so special.
Like many of Stevens Point’s “Old Northside” residents, Frank Anton Klein was the son of immigrant parents from German occupied Poland (Prussia). His parents, brother, and sister settled in Stevens Point when he was 13 years old. As a young man, he took on a manual labor job, working for a local bricklayer. Later, Frank also took an additional job at a wholesale hardware store as the family he and his wife had started, had an increasing number of mouths to feed.
After many years of working for the Friday family at their Central Company store, Frank decided to forge out on his own. Although starting this new venture at the age of 54 did not seem to be an example of a wise business model, Frank’s family was sizable, so he decided to move ahead with his plan. Frank’s idea was to sell many of the same hardware materials which were sold at the Central Company, not as their competitor but as a hardware store that would be complementary to Friday’s store.
The Central Company was a wholesale store catering to established trade contractors buying their building necessities in substantial quantities for building large-scale projects in Central Wisconsin. Conversely, Frank’s business would focus on the retail hardware market selling to smaller scale builders and weekend warriors. In 1941, he opened his door at 117 Second Street, on the east side of the north entry to the Public Square (next to what is currently Fall Line Outfitter’s).
His retail hardware business grew and flourished over the following 16 years, but in 1957 at 70 years of age, Frank was ready to retire, and two of his sons, Al (Alois) and John, were ready to step up and take over the family business. Taking over an already established business made some aspects of the transition a bit easier for them. But running a business with a family member can prove to be monumentally difficult. Somehow the brothers were able to make it work.
Most people would agree that Al and John were seen by many as complete opposites, which may have made them successful partners. Al was a mountain of a man, well over six feet tall, soft spoken, with a soft heart and a good sense of humor. John, however, was much slighter in build and was known to have a quick wit and for doing more of the talking and interacting with their customers.
There was one value which both brothers shared, that of; service to the Stevens Point community. Their commitment did not begin with their customers; it began with the staff that they hired. The Klein’s took pride in hiring workers with experience in the building field. They were also known for hiring local youngsters with a strong work ethic, interested in working hard and providing service to the community as well.
My mother, Maxine (Strojny) Kluz, was one such person and when she was a sophomore in high school she was hired to work as a cashier. A few years later, my uncle, Richie Strojny, was also hired by the Klein Brothers and many years later so was his son Scott. Family truly played a major role in the success of their business.
Under Al and John’s leadership, the hardware store continued to grow and expand, but their physical building had reached its maximum capacity. The only solution was to move. As luck would have it, a building just around the corner had become available. In 1965 the Klein brothers purchased that building, and 917 College Avenue became the new location of Frank’s Hardware.
At the time of purchase, the building was the home of Fisher’s Dairy and needed to be retrofitted, making it appropriate for retail hardware materials. With the clientele that regularly shopped at the store, Al and John had no shortage of carpenters and contractors from which to hire to make the necessary changes. True to their business model, they hired someone they knew would be a solid and conscientious worker, one that they could trust to do whatever it took to make the building work for their needs. That man was Maxine’s new husband, (my father) Al Kluz. Being a self-employed home builder, he was also one of their regular customers and a comfortable employment fit for all involved.
The conversion of the dairy did not happen overnight. Coolers had to be disassembled, and piles and piles of cork insulation, which was used to keep the dairy cold, had to be peeled from the walls. (it soon became prime fort building material, though perhaps toxic, for me and my brother and sister). Before long Frank’s Hardware store had more than tripled in square footage as did their bottom line. They had a great central location for a rapidly growing community. Their staff also grew to more than a dozen employees, but the one thing that did not change was their aim to give young people a chance to start their work life.
For most longtime residents of Stevens Point, Frank’s home at 917 College Ave. was convenient and enjoyed because of its central location. But the global retail market was evolving, and Stevens Point was about to be left behind if it did not commit to building the mecca of all retail in the 1980’s: a mall! Many sites for the mall, in and around the city had been explored and vetted, but for the same reason that the community loved the downtown location of Frank’s Hardware, it was also seen as the most appropriate location for what would become known as the CenterPoint Mall.
The mall was constructed east and west, parallel to Main Street but one block to the north. This would allow businesses on Main Street to remain much as they were, with the hope that complementary foot traffic would help the downtown retail to continue to thrive.
The chosen location for the mall was not without its problems. Several retail businesses were already located on College Ave. When the site for the mall was confirmed, the owners of those businesses generally had two choices to make; relocate or close their doors. Al and John were not interested in closing Frank’s Hardware, so there seemed to be no other option than to move the store’s location.
A downtown location was off the table in 1984. There was no parcel of land or open store front available that could be adapted to meet their needs. The Klein brothers decided that after almost 40 years in downtown Stevens Point, they would buy land on the growing Highway 10 east corridor of the city and construct a store there. Building from scratch would allow them to design the building to fit their specifications and hopefully the needs of their clientele.
The 5444 East Highway 10 site was a gamble. It was their hope that retail giants Target and Fleet Farm might help draw customers in the general direction of their new store. Later, another well-established downtown retail business, Shippy’s Shoes Store, followed their lead, moving to an adjacent east side store front. Frank’s customers had more than ample reason to make the shift to the east side of town and did just that.
During my interview with Rick and his son TJ, again and again they kept coming back to the one aspect of their business model they believe separated their business from many of the rest: “people; both customers and employees.” According to Rick, working at Frank’s was a “first job for many young people,” in the greater Stevens Point area. He recalled that one young man they employed, Jackson McNichols “knew more about the hardware business at 16 years old, than many others much older than him.” Their staff consisted of those who would later work in the building trades: carpentry, masonry, plumbing, and electricity. They also recalled with notable pride that some of their employees went on to higher education, completing degrees in engineering and medicine; some became nurses and one medical doctor.
Many others did not pursue higher education, yet Rick credited them all with keeping the store thriving for years. One such person was Cheryl Zdroik; Rick and TJ had nothing but praise for her dedication to their store. It was clear to me that their unofficial motto was, as they put it, “Family owned - friends hired.”
The other component of the “People-centered” business model was their customers. Everyone entering the doors of Frank’s Hardware, looking for an impossible to find item, either learned that they were wrong about it being impossible, or they left knowing that the staff had exhausted every avenue in trying to find a solution to their hardware dilemma. Most people I know echoed the phrase “if you couldn’t find it at Frank's, you couldn’t find it anywhere.” The store's strength was providing full service to their loyal customers. In fact, everyone could utilize the service center at the back of the store, where the staff would “customize the customers” with pride. Orders could be placed for any piece or part, washer, wrench, or widget, which was not already found on the store's shelves. Helping each and every customer was their sincere goal.
In 1993, it was time for the third generation of the Klein family to take over the reins of the store. Rick and Mark stepped forward and took over for their father Al and Uncle John. The store was familiar territory. For Rick, Mark and their brother Allen, the hardware store had been a place to play and grow and explore, and later a place to learn what it would take to run the family business. Rick, the eldest of the third generation, recalled that his earliest memories of the store were at its original location on Second St., where “Grandpa Frank would sit on a chair positioned over a heating grate by the door, acting as the Matradee, greeting customers as they entered.”
As kids, the most fun they had was climbing and swinging on the ropes which hung in the storeroom in the back of the building when no one was looking. Their daily chore was to pick up the stray nails and screws, that had fallen on the floor throughout the day. Once they were old enough, they could go to the basement to operate the pipe cutter which helped them learn about the nuts and bolts of the business (pun intended). When they were young adults, they were allowed to get on the store’s ladders or work on the key cutting machine and other tasks that might involve some physical risk.
With Rick’s wife Linda (Busa) Klein, by his side and in charge of running the front of the store, the two of them carried on the people centered legacy of their family business. They and their children TJ and Sarah were the next in line to keep the family business thriving, and they did just that for nearly two decades. That is, until a perfect storm of business disruption, exasperated by the COVID pandemic, forced them to reconsider their future.
The infrastructure work on highway 10 east, often made reaching their store difficult if not impossible. Supply chain orders were adversely affected by COVID, slowing the stores’ merchandise fill rate to 15% of orders placed, for the better part of three years. That process improved, but remained low, at about 40%, until the fall of 2023. These obstacles, coupled with health challenges, led the Klein family to make the gut-retching decision to close their doors. The final chapter of the store that had opened over eight decades earlier had to be written. A final day was chosen to make their last sale; the doors were then closed, and the only thing left was, and is, the sale of the building that had been home to Frank’s Hardware for the last four decades.
Countless customers, well over a hundred employees and four generations of the Frank Klein family, made a living, found a purpose and just the right hardware they needed to get their job done, at Stevens Point’s one and only Frank’s Hardware Store. Rick and TJ expressed how much the community enriched and gave meaning to their lives and their families. As they put it “Frank’s Hardware was an amazing and fulfilling way to contribute to the (Stevens Point) community that we loved”.
My sincere thanks to Rick and TJ Klein for sharing their memories of the 80 years of the Franks Hardware Store while refreshing my memories and hopefully yours too.
