Tom Rankin moved to Hillsborough in late August 1998. He unloaded a moving truck, and the next morning he walked into Dual Supply on West King Street to buy something. In an essay for the News of Orange County, he wrote that when he reached for his wallet, Wesley Woods offered to put the purchase on a store account Rankin didn't have yet. Woods wrote the items on a scrap of paper, bagged them and sent him home. Rankin says he has run a monthly tab there ever since. The bills were handwritten and mailed, and more recently Mike Woods delivered them by hand to save on postage.
In late summer the family announced the store would close. Jeff Woods put a "going out of business sale" sign in the window on Monday, Aug. 24, the News & Observer reported, and Chapelboro's Oct. 1 business roundup described Dual Supply as "still in its final days of business."
The sale sign was the last step of a long rearrangement. For years the Woods family has been dividing Dual Supply into smaller pieces. Most of them are still open. Two sit on King Street, on what used to be the store's floor. The hardware itself, the part people actually drove downtown for, has moved out to U.S. 70.
A store that was being divided long before the sign went up
Some version of Dual Supply has been in downtown Hillsborough for more than five decades. The Woods family has owned and run it since 1973. Wesley Woods worked in the space when it was a Western Auto, then bought the business and renamed it. His sons, Jeffrey and Michael, worked alongside Wesley and Alice Woods and eventually took over running the shop.
Chapelboro's September report traces how the store got smaller over the past decade. At one point the family expected the store to leave downtown altogether. Instead, they sold some of the downtown properties Wesley Woods had owned. In 2019 they bought more than three acres off U.S. 70 near St. Mary's Road and opened Woods Farm & Garden. Jeff's son Adam runs it.
On King Street, the building was being shared out. In 2024, the News of Orange County reported that 113 W. King St., a small space connected to the hardware store that the Woods family had also used, would become an ice cream shop called The Town Scoop. Rankin's essay places Anne & Arthur on the other side, west of Dual Supply, also on what had been the hardware store's floor.
By the time the sale sign went up, Dual Supply was already three businesses sharing one family story. The one that sells hardware is out on U.S. 70.
What the block keeps
Rankin's essay has his own test for whether the town is healthy:
"There was a time my health report of Hillsborough began with recognizing that as long as I could buy live crickets in the same King Street block that I could buy a café au lait then all is well in our little town."
He wrote that you could then carry the crickets and coffee across the street to Purple Crow Books for a signed first edition. The crickets went first. Rankin recalls that Jeff Woods had already closed Carolina Fish and Game, the bait and outdoor shop, before the hardware store's turn came.
The coffee and the books are still there. Here is what the 100 block of West King Street offers now, by address:
- Purple Crow Books, 109 W. King St. New and used books, with a focus on local authors.
- Cup-A-Joe, 112 W. King St. Coffee, light bites, sweet treats and local art on the walls.
- The Town Scoop, 113 W. King St. Ice cream and what its Visit Hillsborough listing calls "unique treasures."
- Anne & Arthur, 117 W. King St. An art supply store that also sells gifts, offers printing, scanning and laminating, and runs workshops.
Of these, The Town Scoop was the one designed from the start with its old neighbor in mind. Co-owner Jason Hawkins also owns Hillsborough Landscaping Co. He opened the shop with TJ and Maggie Gaster and told the News of Orange County at the time that ice cream was only part of the plan. "We want to have a market and kind of a renaissance place," Hawkins said. "We want to sell N.C.-based products, and we want to sustain Dual Supply. We want to sustain the downtown industry." The opening plans described in that article included locally grown produce and meat and a locally made rocking chair for sale.
The block still mixes old and new. What it no longer has is the store where a small part came with a story and a tip on how to install it. Rankin describes Wesley Woods going down to the basement for the brass set screw that holds a 1930s glass doorknob, or the oval-to-round stovepipe fitting nobody else could name.
Where the hardware went
The third piece of the old store is Woods Farm & Garden at 1218 US Hwy 70 E. Adam Woods is the third generation of Woods merchants. Chapelboro describes the business as focused mainly on landscaping supplies and equipment. Rankin describes it as "a growing enterprise that carries much of what you find at Dual and more."
Here is how the old Dual Supply errands line up with what Woods Farm & Garden lists:
- Hardware and tools. The store's website lists hardware supplies and tools along with home and garden merchandise.
- Lawn equipment. Dual Supply sold new Stihl weed eaters and chainsaws and repaired lawn equipment. ECHO lists Woods Farm & Garden as an independent dealer and master service dealer, and Rankin notes you can buy a new lawnmower there.
- Fishing and bait. Rankin writes that Adam Woods will sell you a minnow bucket, a dozen or more live minnows, and a Malcolm Hester handmade wooden fishing float.
- Heavy materials. Woods delivers mulch, dirt and gravel, and the site also lists trees, shrubs, plants, seed, Old Hickory sheds and carports, and U-Haul rentals.
- Winter weather. When winter weather was in the forecast, Dual Supply set sleds and snow shovels out on the King Street sidewalk. The Woods Farm & Garden products page lists snow melt and sleds among its seasonal items.
The same page lists fresh-cut Christmas trees and pumpkins and gourds as seasonal items. In mid-November, that places one of the season's first errands on U.S. 70.
Rankin reports that Jeff Woods talked about the changes in plain terms. He said we live in the age of the Jetsons, the pace of community life has changed, and Amazon brings anything right to the front door. The family had already made its move. They opened the highway store in 2019, years before the sale sign went up on King Street.
The first holiday season without the King Street windows
Rankin writes that what he already misses are the changing store windows, a kind of sidewalk art show that tracked the seasons and holidays, and the apples, peanuts, rocking chairs and lawnmowers out on the sidewalk. This year, the holiday displays on that stretch will come from other people.
A few of them are already on the calendar:
- Hillsborough Holiday Bazaar, Saturday, Nov. 21, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. This free event fills the Historic Courthouse Lawn at 104 E. King St. with more than 40 artists and craft vendors, just a short walk east of the Dual Supply block.
- Homes for the Holidays gingerbread contest. Registration is open through Nov. 24, and the entries are on display Dec. 5 through Jan. 4.
- Jingle and Joy Weekend, Dec. 5 and 6. On Saturday, the Hillsborough Visitor Center hosts photos with Santa, reading with Mrs. Claus and a Multicultural Holidays Fair, followed by the annual Tree Lighting Ceremony at the Historic Orange County Courthouse. On Sunday, the Hillsborough Chamber of Commerce's Light Up the Night Holiday Parade runs along Churton Street from Corbin Street to Margaret Lane.
Rankin closes his essay by pointing readers to Woods Farm & Garden. He writes that while Dual Supply closes and the town grieves the change, "we can all find many things we need from the third generation of Woods merchants." For the parade on Dec. 6, the King Street block still offers a Cup-A-Joe coffee and a Town Scoop cone before you head to Churton Street, and the snow melt for the next cold snap is at 1218 US Hwy 70 E.
If you own an older Hillsborough house that once relied on Dual Supply for odd fittings and a word of advice, I'm glad to share what my construction lending background has taught me about which repairs to handle yourself and which call for a specialist. Dana Cantrell Realty is always happy to talk through a project over coffee on King Street. Let's Connect.
