More Than a Hardware Store: Mitchell Hardware and the Heart of Downtown New Bern
Walk along Craven Street in downtown New Bern and there are certain storefronts that seem to belong exactly where they are. Mitchell Hardware is one of them.
At 215 Craven Street, the old-fashioned storefront gives only a hint of what waits inside. Step through the door and Mitchell’s becomes part hardware store, part general store, part gift shop—and part living piece of New Bern.
There are tools and garden supplies, certainly. But there are also seeds, local foods, kitchen goods, gifts, seasonal decorations, and the sort of odds and ends that can turn a quick errand into a half-hour of wandering.
That mixture of practicality, discovery, and personality isn’t something dreamed up by a modern retail consultant.
It has been developing for more than a century.
From Horses and Harnesses to Hardware
The Mitchell story began in 1898, when the business was established as a livery stable on East Front Street. Instead of hammers, bird feeders, and garden tools, the early Mitchell business dealt in horses, wagons, and harnesses.
In the early 1900s, the business moved to Craven Street and gradually developed into the hardware store generations of New Bern residents would come to know.
The last Mitchell family owner was Thomas Mitchell IV, known around town as “Buzz.” According to the store’s own history, Buzz became known for his ability to find just the item a customer needed—even when some of those items were tucked away in cigar boxes around the shop.
It is difficult to imagine a better description of an old-fashioned hardware store: a place where knowing where something is can be nearly as important as knowing what it is called.
The Store That Almost Disappeared
By 1987, Mitchell Hardware was facing the possibility of closing.
That’s when local banker and Swiss Bear chairman Harold Talton stepped in. Within a week of discussions, Talton and his wife, Patricia, purchased the business. Rather than allowing another piece of downtown New Bern to disappear, they decided to preserve it.
Within a year, they purchased the historic 1912 S.B. Parker building across the street and relocated Mitchell Hardware there.
The building was updated for a working business, but much of its character was preserved: tin ceilings, leaded glass, hardwood floors, and traditional shelving remained part of the experience.
The Taltons also made an important decision—they kept the Mitchell Hardware name.
That decision preserved something more valuable than a sign over a storefront. It preserved continuity.
“Hi, Friend!”
The Taltons brought their nephew Greg Smith into the business to manage the store. In 2010, Smith became its owner.
Over the years, Greg became closely associated not only with Mitchell Hardware but with downtown New Bern itself. The store remembers him as “Mr. Downtown New Bern,” a man known for greeting customers with a simple phrase:
“Hi, friend!”
Under Smith, Mitchell’s continued to be more than a place where people purchased things. It became a gathering place and a participant in the life of downtown. His involvement extended beyond the counter through support for local causes and the continuing revitalization of downtown New Bern.
And all the while, two members of the next generation were watching.
The Next Generation
Greg’s daughters, Winnie Smith and Lindsay Sims, grew up with Mitchell Hardware as part of their everyday lives.
In 2018, the sisters took ownership.
They inherited something considerably more complicated than a retail business. They inherited a name dating to 1898, a historic downtown building, generations of customers, and the responsibility of deciding how an old New Bern institution survives in a world of big-box stores and online shopping.
Their answer has largely been to preserve what makes Mitchell’s different.
Today, the store remains a working hardware and general store while carrying garden supplies, gifts, home goods, locally made products, and New Bern keepsakes. The sisters have continued the tradition of personal service they grew up around—helping customers solve problems rather than simply pointing them toward an aisle.
A Store That Still Belongs to the Town
Perhaps that explains why Mitchell Hardware has endured.
New Bern has changed enormously since the Mitchell story began in 1898. Transportation changed. Shopping changed. Downtown changed. Entire categories of retail disappeared.
Mitchell’s changed too.
But it never completely surrendered the characteristics of the neighborhood store.
Today, people still come through the door looking for something practical. Gardeners arrive for seeds and supplies. Visitors browse for something that reminds them of New Bern. Others simply wander the aisles to see what they might discover.
And sometimes people come simply because going to Mitchell’s is something you do when you’re downtown.
That’s an increasingly rare thing.
A town is more than its historic buildings and monuments. It is also made up of the places people return to—the stores where somebody recognizes them, the restaurants where they know what they’re going to order, and the businesses that somehow become part of the rhythm of a community.
For more than a century, Mitchell Hardware has been one of those places.
The horses and wagons are gone.
The cigar boxes filled with mysterious hardware may belong to another generation.
But the doors are still open on Craven Street.
And another chapter of the Mitchell Hardware story is being written every day.