The 100 block of West King Street will still have its storefronts this winter, but most of them will sell something different. Dual Supply Co., the hardware store the Woods family has run at 115 W. King St. since 1973, put a going-out-of-business sign in its window on Monday, August 24, Chapelboro reported. The plan was to close at the end of September. On October 1, Chapelboro's quarterly business roundup said the store was still in its final days.
Across the street, the old Lloyd's Pharmacy space is being turned into a yoga studio. Two doors east of Dual, an ice cream shop now fills what used to be hardware aisles. If you want a dozen live minnows or a load of mulch, that errand now starts on U.S. 70. The things you used to pick up on foot on this block have moved out to the highway corridor. The downtown block is keeping the evenings.
Four addresses, one block
Taken door by door, the block shows where the change happened:
- 113 W. King St., The Town Scoop. An ice cream and treasures shop that opened in 2024 in what had been the right side of Dual Supply's building.
- 114 W. King St., Yonder. On its own site, Yonder calls itself a community gathering place and arts space, with cocktails, wine, beer, live music and rotating art.
- 115 W. King St., Dual Supply Co. It is the last hardware store on the block, and no new tenant has been named for the space.
- 118 W. King St., the former Lloyd's Pharmacy. This is the future home of Begin Again Yoga.
One more business belongs on that list. In an essay for the News of Orange County, Hillsborough resident and Duke professor Tom Rankin wrote that Dual Supply had already been getting smaller. The Town Scoop took over floor space to the east and Anne & Arthur took over floor space to the west, "both businesses resting on what had been floor space of the former of Dual Supply."
So the building had been changing hands for a while. Over about a decade, the Woods family shrank Dual's footprint and sold off some downtown properties Wesley Woods had owned, Chapelboro reported. The closing sale finishes a change the block has been going through for years.
What the block used to do
Rankin's essay is the best record of what the hardware store did for the block beyond selling hardware. He described Dual Supply as a place where you could still buy the odd part:
Do you have that piece of oval-shape stove pipe that comes directly from the stove and then turns to round so it can connect with the main triple wall pipe that goes through the ceiling? Or, do you know that little brass set screw that secures a 1930s glass doorknob? I need one of those.
He wrote about a store tab that Wesley Woods opened for him on his first morning in town in August 1998. Bills stayed handwritten and were tallied at the end of each month, and lately Mike Woods had been delivering them by hand. He described Jeff Woods weighing deer on the sidewalk for the store's Doe Contest. He also described the sidewalk outside as a seasonal display: sleds and snow shovels when winter weather was forecast, and apples, peanuts, rocking chairs and lawnmowers the rest of the year.
Rankin had his own test for whether downtown was doing well. If he could buy live crickets and a café au lait on the same King Street block, and then carry both across the street to Purple Crow Books, the town was fine. His point was range. The block once served chores, bait, coffee and books in a single walk. With Dual's sale underway, the block keeps the coffee and the books. The crickets have moved.
Jeff Woods put the change in plain terms. Talking with Rankin, he said that "we live in the age of the Jetsons," with packages showing up at the door and small-town retail getting harder.
Where the hardware aisle went
The family's hardware business now runs out of a store on U.S. 70. Jeff Woods' son, Adam, runs Woods Farm & Garden, which the family opened after buying more than three acres off U.S. 70 near St. Mary's Road in 2019, Chapelboro reported. Rankin called it "a growing enterprise that carries much of what you find at Dual and more."
Here is what the store stocks, based on Woods Farm & Garden's own product page and Rankin's essay:
- Hardware and garden tools
- Landscape supplies, plus delivery of mulch, dirt and gravel
- Trees, shrubs, plants and seeds
- Home and garden décor and seasonal items
- Old Hickory sheds and carports
- U-Haul rentals
- Fishing supplies and live minnows, along with handmade wooden fishing floats by Malcolm Hester, "no two alike"
That list explains the new layout. Most of the heavy, bulky purchases on it never fit well in a downtown storefront: gravel, sheds, trailer rentals, nursery stock. Downtown, the block is filling with businesses that run on foot traffic and evening hours. The family's retail is now in a spot with room for loading and storage. Rankin counts the Woods Farm & Garden crew as the third generation of Woods merchants.
Across the street, a pharmacy sign that stays up
The other big change on the block is a wellness business taking over a storefront that served the same purpose before. The News of Orange County reported that the 1,727-square-foot former Lloyd's Pharmacy at 118 W. King St. will become Begin Again Yoga. It is owned by Chris and Kimberly Paolucci, Hillsborough residents who moved to town from the Washington, D.C., area in 2019. Evelyn Lloyd and her father, Allen Lloyd, ran the pharmacy there for decades.
The studio plans to offer hot yoga, stretching and mobility-focused classes, and instructors will be encouraged to teach the styles they care about most. The storefront is being renovated with a nod to its history. A newly designed, permanent Lloyd's Pharmacy sign will stay above the space as a tribute. "For so many years, Evelyn Lloyd and her father cared for people in this community through Lloyd's Pharmacy," landlord Jim Parker told the News of Orange County.
When to go: the studio's FAQ says the owners hope to open in early November 2026 and suggests joining the waitlist for updates. No class schedule has been posted yet, so check the site before you walk over.
Across the street from each other, the two buildings follow the same pattern. The pharmacy's sign stays and the room changes. Dual's floor space was split among an ice cream shop, a second shop and a store now closing. In both cases the old name stays on the street while the space inside takes on a new use.
The send-off already happened at Yonder
The block marked the change itself. On Wednesday, October 28, from 6 to 8 p.m., Visit Hillsborough's calendar listed a gathering at Yonder, 114 W. King St., to toast the Woods family and Dual Supply, with light snacks. The bar next door hosting the farewell for the hardware store fits the block's new shape. Yonder's weekly calendar also lists free line dancing on Tuesday evenings followed by an open mic.
King Street's November, east of the block
The rest of the month's downtown calendar runs along the same street and the blocks nearby. That makes the new West King Street easy to try on an ordinary weekend.
Saturday, November 7, noon to 4 p.m. The Hillsborough Harvest Festival is at the Elizabeth Keckley Center at the Burwell School, 319 N. Churton St. It has bluegrass, food trucks, children's crafts and arts vendors. Tickets cost $25, and proceeds benefit WHUP and the Center.
Saturday, November 21, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The free Hillsborough Holiday Bazaar is two blocks east of Dual Supply on the Historic Courthouse Lawn, 104 E. King St. The Orange County Arts Commission lists more than 40 artists and craft vendors, snacks and drinks, live entertainment and art-making for kids. All downtown parking is free, including the Eno River Parking Garage one block away behind Weaver St. Market. There's no seating on the lawn, but camp chairs are allowed.
Same day, two more options. Visit Hillsborough's November calendar lists the Chestnut Ridge Trail Run/Walk in Efland from 9 a.m. to noon and a Fleetwood Mac Candlelight Experience at the Colonial Inn from 1 to 8 p.m.
November 1 through 24. Registration is open for the Home for the Holidays gingerbread competition. Entries will be on view at participating Hillsborough businesses from December 5 through January 4.
The town's tree lighting and holiday parade are not in November this year. Visit Hillsborough lists the Hillsborough Holiday Weekend for December 5 and 6.
On a bazaar Saturday, a downtown walk can start with ice cream at 113 W. King St., pass the new studio at 118, and end at the Courthouse Lawn. Snow shovels, mulch and minnows now mean a drive out U.S. 70.
If you want to talk about what the turnover at 115 and 118 West King Street means for the homes and businesses around it, the team at Terra Nova Global Properties is glad to share what we're seeing downtown. Let's Connect.
