Our History

For over 120 years, A.D. Naylor and Company, a family owned hardware business, has been influential in Oakland, MD, and the surrounding areas.

In March, 1884, Alonzo Drake Naylor, formerly of Virginia, rented the Sincell Blacksmith Shop in Oakland, and bought the business. Some of A.D.'s first services included the repairing of a three-seated wagon, shoeing a horse with new shoes, the setting of new steel tires on four buggy wheels, and the repair of farm tools.

At the turn of the twentieth century, it was a prosperous time for Mountain Lake Park, MD, just outside of Oakland. Naylor's plumbers, carrying their tools, would daily walk the two-mile trip between Oakland and Mountain Lake Park. This period was the real beginning of offering the installation and maintenance services still provided, along with opening and closing of cottages.

Oakland was the largest and most complete hardware dealer. As new and better methods of indoor plumbing, central heating, and better lighting were devised in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, A.D. was quick to make them available locally. The hardware store began carrying plumbing, gas, and electrical equipment, and hired or trained employees who specialized in installing and maintaining new systems.

Naylor's often took jobs some distance from Oakland. The men who worked on plumbing, or roofing of a house, in Rowlesburg or Davis, West Virginia, would take the train over Monday morning and return Saturday night. Generally, they worked a 10-hour or 12-hour day.

At the end of World War II, there was an upsurge in building or renovation of private housing throughout Garrett County, with the increase of vacationers and retirees. As a result, A.D. Naylor and Company focused more into the contracting business than before.

In 1966, A.D. Naylor and Company added Culligan Water Conditioning to the company. Culligan has been America's number one water purification company since 1936.

Naylor's began opening branch hardware stores in 1974. Currently, Naylor's operates five ACE hardware stores located in Oakland, LaVale & Cumberland, MD, and Kingwood & Elkins, WV.

Today, A.D. Naylor's Contracting continuously devotes time and effort on sales and service, and enjoys an excellent reputation for quality work and business integrity.

Although A.D. Naylor died in 1964 at the age of 103, his reputation and business leadership continues to influence the hardware, Contracting & Culligan businesses, in Oakland and the surrounding areas.