Trevor Hardware now a part of the Ace family 

An iconic Moline hardware store is brand new again after 136 years in business.  Trevor Hardware, located at 2842 16th St., recently became Trevor Ace Hardware.  “We’re still the same people, the same place but Ace is the Place,” Butch Trevor, co-owner and company president, said referencing the famous tagline “Ace is the Place with […]

An iconic Moline hardware store is brand new again after 136 years in business.  Trevor Hardware, located at 2842 16th St., recently became Trevor Ace Hardware. 

“We’re still the same people, the same place but Ace is the Place,” Butch Trevor, co-owner and company president, said referencing the famous tagline “Ace is the Place with the Helpful Hardware Folks.”  Now in its fourth and fifth generation of Trevor family owners, the store had been a True Value franchise since 1950. The original Trevor store was Store No. 123 in the True Value organization, he told the QCBJ in an interview. Mr. Trevor, who is fourth generation, said there were “lots of reasons” behind the transition from True Value to Ace. One of the biggest is having more product availability and a close proximity to Ace’s distribution center.   With a warehouse in Princeton, Illinois, he said it will cost his company less to have inventory freight delivered to the longtime store. “And in an emergency, I could be there and back in three hours,” he said, thinking of the times when natural disasters have hit and the need for generators and chainsaws has exploded.  

Thanks to Ace’s vast website – and more products available online than in the store – he said he has seen things sold recently via the site that he has not sold in decades such as an animal stock tank. “This is a great new asset for us,” he said.    To mark the transition to Ace, the store and its 15 employees – including three generations of Trevors – welcomed customers to a three-day grand opening that ran from Friday to Sunday, Oct. 27-29.  Trevor traces its roots to Mr. Trevor’s great, great uncle, C.S. Trevor, and C.S.’ brother-in-law Rek Glenn, who first opened the store in 1887. Mr. Trevor’s grandfather and namesake, Clarence “Butch'' Trevor, and his brother Peter Trevor were the second owners, followed by Mr. Trevor’s father Jack along with Peter Trevor’s sons, Dick and Don. The next ownership group included Jack, Dick, Don and Clarence Trevor.  In 1957, a 10-year-old Butch Trevor began working at the family store, joining it full-time in 1969 after college, and eventually joining the ownership group of the store that has been family-run and operated since 1887.  In 1985, he and his wife Kathleen bought out all the other family interests and since have been joined in the business by daughter Lisa Trevor, who is the fifth generation and a co-owner. She serves as vice president and the store’s general manager. Her son, Diego Trevor, represents the sixth generation and works at the store.   After the grand opening, Mr. Trevor told the QCBJ “business was up considerably” for the weekend. “There were a lot of familiar faces but, more importantly, there also were a lot of new faces.”  Festivities included company demonstrations, special deals and discounts, free Ace reusable bags as well as hot popcorn and a new Whitey’s Ice Cream flavor – Nuts & Bolts, made from an old-time recipe first crafted for this store location’s original opening.  “Fifty years ago, Bob Tunberg (then Whitey’s owner) was my mom and dad’s best friend and he came up with Nuts & Bolt Ice Cream,” Mr. Trevor said. “And Jon Tunberg (current co-owner) found an old index card of the formula, and it was the second time they made it for us.”  Trevor’s three-day celebration also included Ace Territory Manager Rusty Palm. Also on hand were company representatives who met with customers and did product demonstrations. They included: Benjamin Moore Paint, Ego Tools, Stihl and Wilton Cake Decorating.  Also as part of the celebration, the Trevor family welcomed special guest 6-year-old Nile Kron, an Ace Foundation All-Star, and his family (all of Iowa City) to the store. Nile was born at 32 weeks in 2017, spending his first 51 days in the NICU at the University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital. Born pre-mature, he also was born with a bilateral cleft lip and palate, scoliosis, absent right ear, Coloboma of his left eye and a tethered cord.  Nile, who now is beginning to hear with the aid of a cochlear implant, was selected as an All-Star for the Ace Cares for Kids program in 2022 at age 5. He was nominated by Stead Family Children’s Hospital, where he has been a patient all his life. The nationwide campaign gave every Children’s Miracle Network Hospital an opportunity to nominate a deserving patient. A $10,000 donation from Duracell was made to the Iowa City hospital in his honor.  “Ace is a really longtime promoter of Children’s Miracle Network,” said Mr. Trevor, who has just been learning of the relationship since becoming an Ace franchise.  To bolster support for Stead Family Children’s Hospital, he said Trevor Hardware asked all its weekend customers to round up their purchase totals in order to donate the added monies to the Iowa City hospital. (A total was not yet available.)