Family-owned hardware stores to change hands after 179 years

A local hardware store will have a new name for the first time since 1845. Clarks Ace Hardware, which owns Ace Hardware shops in Ellicott City and Columbia, has agreed to an acquisition deal with Kansas City’s Westlake Ace Hardware. Clarks has been in the Clark family for seven generations since opening as a farm supply store in Ellicott City more than 175 years ago.