New owners reopen historic hardware store in downtown Biloxi

BILOXI, Miss. (WLOX) - A longtime hardware store in downtown Biloxi is back in business.

The Ellises are taking over for the Ellzeys.

“We’re so blessed to get to do this,” said Lauren Ellis.

It’s the first day of re-opening for Ellzey’s Hardware, now under new ownership.

“We purposefully did not have a grand opening ceremony today. We’re going to do that in a couple weeks,” said Jeffrey Ellis. “Then a post was made on Facebook. Since that happened, the door hasn’t stopped opening.”

Brothers Jeffrey and Glenn Ellis, along with their wives Dallas and Lauren, jumped at the opportunity to purchase the historic hardware store when its future was looking dim.

“I turned 65; I was ready to retire. Nobody in the family wanted it,” said former owner Sandra Ellzey-Cannette. “The Ellises came along, and it was a perfect fit.”

Ellzey-Cannette is deeply connected to the Biloxi location.

“Pretty much my whole life,” she said speaking to how long she’s been there. “I worked here for over 40 years and it was my dad’s. My grandpa before that. I was third generation, my brother and I.”

When she was ready to retire and close up shop ...

“We immediately called her that day and we met with her the next day,” Jeffrey Ellis said.

“It was just something that tugged at our hearts to see if it’s something that we could jump into and keep it open and keep it alive,” Lauren said.

When the deal was made, the Ellises got to work.

“The building is old. Quite a bit of work had to be redone. My brother and I put a lot of sweat equity into this building,” Jeffrey Ellis said. “We really were striving to keep everything as original as possible.”

“I’m very proud of those girls too because they have all worked so hard. The boys and the girls have put in a lot of hours getting them to where they are today,” Ellzey-Cannette said.

Along with bringing marine supplies to the hardware store, the Ellises are proud of their Barq’s Root Beer soda bottle machine.

Jeffrey Ellis restored it himself and said it might be the only one of its kind on the Gulf Coast, and it’s a way to showcase another Biloxi original.

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