Chronic Flooding Closed Hartford Neighborhood Hardware Store

By Mia Jaworski
UConn Journalism

For years, Star Hardware was a cor­ner­stone of Hartford’s North End, serv­ing res­i­dents with the tools, sup­plies and appli­ances they need­ed. But despite strong sales and a ded­i­cat­ed cus­tomer base, the store has faced an enemy it sim­ply couldn’t fight any longer: flood­ing.

Located in an area long plagued by com­bined sewer over­flows and street flood­ing, the store has endured repeat­ed water dam­age, lead­ing own­ers Max and Parul Kothari to close the hard­ware side of the busi­ness in 2023 after incur­ring mil­lions in loss­es.

The story of Star Hardware is not just about a sin­gle business—it’s about an entire com­mu­ni­ty strug­gling against a decades-old prob­lem that no amount of sand­bags or resilience can seem to fix.

Hartford’s North End has bat­tled chron­ic flood­ing for years, a con­se­quence of an out­dat­ed sewer sys­tem that mixes stormwa­ter with raw sewage. With each heavy rain­fall, water over­whelms many of the streets, pours into some busi­ness­es and hous­es and leaves res­i­dents scram­bling to recov­er. As storms have inten­si­fied in recent years, so has the prob­lem, and Star Hardware has been one of its many casu­al­ties.

The store’s owner, work­ers, and cus­tomers have all expe­ri­enced the dev­as­ta­tion first­hand. Under a con­sent order between the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) and the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC), $170 mil­lion is being allo­cat­ed to fix the sew­er­age sys­tem infra­struc­ture and stop the flood­ing cri­sis, includ­ing $5 mil­lion in aid for affect­ed res­i­dents, and busi­ness­es.

Star Hardware flood­ed four times in the past five years, with each flood caus­ing any­where from $750,000 to $1 mil­lion in dam­ages. The store has lost more than $1 mil­lion, mak­ing it impos­si­ble to con­tin­ue oper­at­ing, the own­ers said.

The worst flood­ing began after the devel­op­ment of a near­by reten­tion pond next to a res­i­den­tial neigh­bor­hood behind the store. Instead of solv­ing drainage issues, the pond has seem­ing­ly wors­ened them.

The pond has at times filled with debris and clogged. Christopher Levesque, MDC’s chief oper­at­ing offi­cer, of the MDC, vis­it­ed the area behind Star Hardware with staff mem­bers of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2023, when he report­ed find­ing “sig­nif­i­cant debris in the reten­tion basin, includ­ing var­i­ous sports balls,” Levesque said in an email sent to DEEP, the city of Hartford, and other MDC offi­cials. The MDC cleared the clog and billed the city at that time.

The prob­lem “is a storm drainage issue more than a sewer issue, said Nisha Patel, direc­tor of DEEP’s water plan­ning and man­age­ment. “However, since much of Hartford is still a com­bined sys­tem, storm drainage improve­ments are an impor­tant part of address­ing sewer over­flows.”

The impact of the store’s clo­sure extends beyond its walls. The North End com­mu­ni­ty has long felt neglect­ed when it comes to infra­struc­ture invest­ments, and many res­i­dents feel that the city’s response to the flood­ing prob­lem has been slow and inad­e­quate.

Former Star Hardware employ­ee and cur­rent Express Kitchens employ­ee Tony Brown, who worked at the hard­ware store for 27 years, said he miss­es the role the busi­ness played in the com­mu­ni­ty. “I liked work­ing there,” Brown said. “It was a sta­ple of Hartford.”

Now, the space that once housed Star Hardware is part of Express Kitchens, but rem­nants of its past remain. A sign still hangs above the ware­house, and Brown said he can still see Star Hardware when he walks through the build­ing.

“There are still the same tiles, and you can even see where shelves were, the mark­ings are still on the floor,” he said. “The place was repaint­ed to a brighter white color. It used to be an off-white before. It’s hard­er on the eyes now, espe­cial­ly with the lights. The chains still hang from the ceil­ing. It’s weird. When I walk around, I can still see Stars, but it’s not Stars any­more.”

Star Hardware cel­e­brat­ed its 100th anniver­sary in 2015, though the Main Street loca­tion was not estab­lished until 1963. In a now near­ly empty room, where only a sin­gle chair and table remain, pho­tos of past mile­stone events still hang on the walls, com­mem­o­rat­ing the store’s his­to­ry.

Brown fond­ly recalls the shelves once filled with paint and plumb­ing supplies—the store’s best-sell­ing items. “People came the most for paint and plumb­ing sup­plies,” he said, chuck­ling at the irony of sell­ing plumb­ing sup­plies in a store that was repeat­ed­ly flood­ed. “We did a lot of removal and replace­ment of water heaters. We only sold parts and pieces; we didn’t install any­thing. That was a contractor’s job, but we still made friends with every­one.”

He also remem­bers how per­son­al the busi­ness was. “When Stars was closed—man, I miss Stars,” Brown said. “The vol­ume of peo­ple and the type of peo­ple just aren’t com­ing any­more. You’d see these peo­ple every week.”

The store was more than just a retail space; it was a hub for the com­mu­ni­ty. Brown rem­i­nisced about the reg­u­lar cus­tomers he saw every week.

Star Hardware used to sup­ply local ele­men­tary and high schools, offer­ing equip­ment and a break in a school main­te­nance worker’s day, like Bill, a man who would visit for one small item but stay for an hour just to talk. “Home away from home,” Brown said. “I miss that.”

He also spoke about how tight­ly knit the employ­ees were. “The guys who work here were pret­ty relaxed,” he said. “On spe­cial occa­sions, we would get drinks on our birth­days. It was—and still is—a close envi­ron­ment for those of us still here.”

The flood­ing didn’t just destroy the store—it dis­rupt­ed lives. Brown said employ­ees had to close the store for days to clean up the after­math, deal­ing with foul-smelling water that seeped through the floor and shut­ters. “You couldn’t even expect or under­stand how gross it was,” he said. “It was so bad.

Restrooms were closed for an entire sum­mer due to back-up, leav­ing patrons and work­ers alike to share one of the other small bath­rooms.

The build­ing still floods. Brown said the new busi­ness keeps sup­plies in the back to pre­pare for future storms. “Even now, when­ev­er we are expect­ing rain, we keep stuff in the back to pre­pare for the dam­age,” he said.

When Star Hardware closed its doors in 2023, it left behind more than just a storefront—it served as a stark reminder of Hartford’s per­sis­tent flood­ing cri­sis.

Whether the store will reopen else­where or remain closed for good is uncer­tain. But one thing is clear: with­out real, last­ing solu­tions, it won’t be the last busi­ness forced to make this dif­fi­cult deci­sion.

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TOP PHOTO: The exte­ri­or of the for­mer Star Hardware store at 2995 Main Street in Hartford’s North End. The store closed in 2023 after con­stant dam­age from com­bined sewer over­flows. Photo by Mia Jaworski