A Legacy of Craftsman
Marc Pritchard is well-known in the small village of Cattaraugus in the hills of Western NY where he has called home all his life. His father Gerald started Pritchard Hardware in 1960 when Marc was just 5 years old. It was a family business. Mostly family members worked there and those who weren’t blood relatives soon became family. The contracting business that went along with the store concentrated on plumbing, heating and electrical work. Pritchard Hardware soon became the go-to establishment for fixing most anything. After growing up working side by side with his dad Gerald Marc eventually took over to own and operate the hardware store for many more years until its sale in August 2024.
Marc’s first love was working with wood. He often takes local hardwood logs to nearby Amish mills for future projects. At first, he refurbished some of his Grandfather Harry’s tools that he played with in his spare time and gradually added to his wood shop. Harry Blakely’s father had been an accomplished woodworker in Cattaraugus many years prior and his business was called Cattaraugus Woodworking. His intricate work can still be found in many of the houses in Cattaraugus today.
In 2023, as Marc contemplated retiring from the Hardware business, he rebuilt his woodshop to accommodate the tools he would need to concentrate on his favorite pastime- woodturning and woodworking. Currently Marc specializes in lathe turned items made from local hardwoods. Marc feels strongly about the growth of the village of Cattaraugus and continuing the legacy that his great grandfather started in Cattaraugus Woodworking.