“We, the ladies of Christine’s, would like to thank you for all your love and support for the last twenty-three years,” begins a farewell letter from the gift/home/baby shop next to Hackney Hardware on Main St. As the letter, posted in the window, makes clear, it was a gentle ladies’ refuge from the hard-edged world of gaskets and couplings next door. Christine O’Haver started the gift shop when she and her husband Tom owned adjoining hardware store. It was Christine’s grandfather Henry Howlett who started the hardware store in Gregory in 1895 that eventually spawned a second Dexter store called Hackney, which the O’Havers bought in 1972. In 1996 Christine and Tom sold the business to their son Dan. Christine’s will now be incorporated into Hackney Hardware as their home department, selling cookware and small appliances.
