Sheldon Hartstone, the longtime owner of Fairmount True Value Hardware in Bangor, died on Wednesday. He was 90 years old, according to his obituary.
Fairmount Hardware was founded in 1950 and today is among the oldest continually operating businesses in Bangor. A 2008 BDN article noted that Hartstone had then worked in the family hardware business for 50 years.
In addition to running the Hammond Street store, Hartstone was at one time a well-known developer in Bangor, who amassed an empire of shopping centers, apartment complexes and other commercial and residential properties.
But in the early 1990s, Fleet Bank initiated a wave of foreclosures claiming that Hartstone and his business partners had defaulted on loans, and most of his properties were auctioned to satisfy debts, according to reports in the BDN archives.
In the 2000s, Hartstone was regularly quoted in local news reports on sales of snow shovels and roof rakes after a winter storm, or fans and air conditioners during a heatwave.