Stine bringing hardware roots to Lockhart 

By Anthony Collins

LPR Editor                                 

   When David Stine talks about why he and his wife, Taryn, bought the Ace Hardware store at 518 W. San Antonio St., he starts not with a business plan but with a family story. Stine, a third-generation part-owner of Stine, a chain of home centers across Louisiana and Mississippi, earned his first paycheck at age 10 working in the family store. The business traces back to his grandfather, Jackson William “JW” Stine, who flew B-26 bombers in World War II before returning home to Sulphur, Louisiana, where he began building houses for returning veterans. Supply runs to Houston for his own projects turned into picking up materials for other local builders, then a warehouse, then a hardware store, then a lumber company, all while JW raised seven children. “He lived to 102, and his way of doing business still guides our family: know your customers, take care of your people, and do the work right,” Stine said.

   The path back to the family trade was not a straight one. Stine finished high school in New Braunfels, where his father was stationed at Kelly Air Force Base, and it was there that the Texas Hill Country first took hold of him. In the years since, he has founded and led a church for more than a decade, taken a media company to the next level, opened coffee shops and, as a licensed contractor, built or remodeled a number of homes and commercial buildings. He also runs Advance Partners, which helps nonprofits, schools, and churches grow. Taryn Stine, a CPA, keeps the books for the family’s businesses, assists a handful of small businesses and nonprofits with their finances, and brings her own background in real estate and home renovation. The couple, who have four children, had long hoped to return to the Hill Country, and Stine said the pull toward hardware never went away. “Sometimes the thing that won’t leave you alone isn’t something new,” he said. “It’s something old that’s finally found its way home.”

   Stine said Lockhart stood out for reasons that will be familiar to anyone who lives here. He pointed to the courthouse square, the barbecue, the history and the way neighbors still look out for one another, and said the town reminds him of the small communities in southwest Louisiana where his family’s company got its start. The store itself, he said, already had good bones, loyal customers and a strong location. Because Ace operates as a cooperative of locally owned stores, the Stines are able to run the business as a true hometown operation while drawing on the buying power of a national brand. After what Stine described as a great deal of thought and prayer, the couple concluded that putting the Stine name on a hardware store in the Barbecue Capital of Texas was the right move.

   The first change customers will notice is already in place: 

longer hours. The store is now open Monday through Saturday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and on Sundays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., a schedule Stine said allows contractors to get an early start and lets families stop in after work or after church. The Stines are hiring to support the expanded schedule. Beyond the clock, Stine said the larger shift is meant to be felt in service, with every customer greeted at the door, asked about the project at hand, and walked to the right aisle. 

     The goal, he said, is to help with an entire job rather than simply sell a single part. Whether the customer is a contractor, a first-time homeowner, or someone fixing up the family place on weekends, shoppers leave with everything they need the first time.

   The building itself will change as well. This fall, the store begins an exterior renovation that will add a new front porch, Austin stone, awnings, and an enclosed garden center. After the first of the year, the interior will be updated to Ace’s newest store design, which Stine said makes products easier to find. The store will keep its focus on hardware, tools and paint, and in early 2027 it will add a full line of barbecue accessories, a nod to the town’s best-known industry. “In the Barbecue Capital of Texas, we want to be Lockhart’s headquarters for everything you need for the pit and the backyard,” Stine said, adding that the new look will carry local character through stone, timber and references to the town’s barbecue heritage. He thanked customers in advance for their patience during construction.

   Stine said the improvements are not intended to erase what longtime customers value about a local hardware store. Employees who know their products, who will take the time to show a customer how to fix a leaky faucet and who remember names are, in his words, the part of his grandfather’s and father’s playbook that he and Taryn most want to protect. The changes, he said, are guided by a simple rule: change what makes a trip easier, and protect what makes people want to come back. That philosophy extends to the community role he envisions for the store. Stine described a good hardware store as part of a town’s fabric, a place to run into a neighbor on a Saturday morning, get advice on a project, and hear what is happening around town. He said he has always had a soft spot for people trying to build something, from a first home to a new small business, and that the store aims to serve them. Rather than spreading itself thin, he said, the store will pick a few community efforts and do them well, while offering good local jobs, fair prices, honest advice, and dollars that stay in Lockhart.

   Looking three to five years ahead, Stine defined success in practical terms: a healthy, growing store with a team that enjoys working there and steady jobs employees are proud of, supported by customers who shop at Stine Ace because it has what they need and treats them right, not merely because it is nearby. In the community, he hopes residents will one day simply call it “our hardware store.” For the family, he said, the aim is to build something lasting, as JW Stine did when he started with one store and a lot of hard work. “If, years from now, Stine Ace Hardware is a store Lockhart is glad to have and our four kids are proud to carry forward, we’ll know we got it right,” he said.