Hardware store maintains its heart under new ownership

Shoppers stopping by Irvington Hardware for a snow shovel or light bulbs might be greeted by an owner who’s new to the trade, but no stranger to the village. Ben Liberatore is an Irvington native and 2012 Irvington High School graduate who, along with Lou Brutto and James Dowd, purchased the Main Street business in September from Joe and Ellen Galano, who owned it for four decades. Brutto is a Yonkers native who now lives in Irvington and Dowd, also a Yonkers native, hails from Yorktown.

Liberatore now makes his home in Ossining with his wife, Caity, and their 16-month-old baby, but as for so many who grew up in Irvington, the hardware store made a lasting impression.