Meet the Stines
The name on the sign has been on hardware stores for three generations.
When the new sign goes up over the Ace Hardware on West San Antonio Street this fall, the name on it will be one that has been over hardware store doors for most of a century.
J.W. Stine opened the first Stine store in Louisiana and built it the old way, one customer and one handshake at a time. His seven children carried it on. David’s father, Dick Stine, the oldest of the seven, served as Chairman of Stine, the family’s home-and-lumber stores across Louisiana and Mississippi, until his retirement in December 2025, and spent eight years on the Board of Directors of Ace Hardware. He is still an owner of the family company. David grew up in those aisles. He earned his first paycheck there at ten years old, and he is still a part-owner of the family company today.
Texas came early. David finished high school in New Braunfels while his dad was stationed at Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio, then went to LSU. He and his wife, Taryn, a CPA who keeps the books for everything the family touches, raised four kids: Isaac, now at Texas Tech; Josiah, at LSU; Asher, a competitive junior tennis player; and Karis, the youngest. Home is the Texas Hill Country, and it has been the plan all along.
“Hardware is the family trade. We just moved it closer to home.”David Stine
After years leading organizations and advising nonprofits on how to grow, David wanted to get back to the trade he started in. When the Lockhart store came up for sale in 2026, it checked every box: a real downtown, a county that still shops local, and a building with good bones. The Stines took the keys in August.
The first change was the hours. The store is now open seven days a week, Sundays included, with a crew that has been here for years and knows most customers by name. The next change is the building itself: a new timber-porch storefront and garden center this fall, and a full interior refresh in early 2027 with a much bigger grill and BBQ department. This is the Barbecue Capital of Texas, and the Stines intend to run its BBQ accessories headquarters.
What will not change is the kind of store it is. Fasteners by the piece. Keys cut while you wait. Paint matched on the spot. Somebody who walks you to the right aisle instead of pointing. Taryn runs the numbers; David runs the stores; the kids show up for sale weekends and parties.
Come in and say hello to the Stines and the rest of the team! If David is not at the counter, he is probably in the back lot moving lumber, or at the square getting brisket.
