HOLLIS – The Hollis Grain Store is reopening on Friday under new management, and a familiar name.

Doug Orde, owner and operator of Hollis Construction, is taking over the business started in the early 1960s by his father, Alan Orde, a retired dairy farmer who also raised chickens and hay.

Alan Orde ran the store, located in a squat, farm building between two floors of chicken coops, until 1983 when he sold the business to Brian Spence.

Spence, in turn, operated the business until several months ago when he was diagnosed with cancer and had to stop working.

Orde said he talked with his father about reopening the business and then jumped in.

“It only made sense,” he said. “My dad owned the property, and somebody had to step up to the plate and take it over.”

In the early days, the grain store was a side business, something to supplement Alan Orde’s primary occupation as a farmer.

But it grew to become a sort of rural department store, carrying everything from animal food and medicines to hardware, painting supplies, household cleaners, and children’s toys, including trampolines and swing sets.

It also developed a reputation as a community center, a place where farmers and home repair do-it-your-selfers could share information and catch up on the local gossip.

When the business reopens Friday, it will carry a new name, “Orde Farm Grain, Hardware, and Landscape Materials,” and later, after Orde receives the necessary approvals from the town’s Historic District Commission, a new sign.

“It’s gone full circle,” the new owner and operator said Tuesday morning after receiving his first grain shipment and making a delivery.

Orde grew up in, and around, the grain store, and he still remembers helping with the chickens.

“When we had a snow day and there was no school, we’d go the basement and stand on apple boxes to pack eggs,” he remembered. “We’d be packing eggs all day.”

He said he worked for his father and grandfather until he was 18 and started Hollis Construction in 1973, an excavation and paving business that he continues to operate.

“I decided I wanted to have a day off,” he said.

Orde said the new grain store will continue to be open seven days a week, Mondays through Saturdays from 8 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. and Sundays from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.

He has hired a manager, Dave Chabat, and hired back four employees who had worked for Spence.

The new store is likely to resemble the old one, with similar departments and displays.

But Orde predicted it will take some time to get up to speed, and he’s asking longtime customers to have patience.

“Bear with us,” he said. “You don’t set up a business overnight. It takes time. … But don’t give up on us. … Come in and talk to us.”

He’s already making plans to transport and sell the hay he raises on a 130-acre farm he owns and operates in Northern Maine.

He also said he wants to add new products, including food for people, locally raised, organic chicken, pork, and beef, and a wide assortment of landscaping supplies.

“You’ve got to change with the times,” Orde said.

On Tuesday, several curious passersby stopped in the driveway outside the front door, apparently heartened by the sign in the window, a simple white poster with green letters that says, “Opening Friday.”

“It’s awesome that it’s reopening,” said Hollis hay farmer Steve Jambard, a former grain store employee, who pulled up in his truck after spotting his father, Tom Jambard, parked out front in his truck.

Tom Jambard said the reopening means he won’t have to travel far to find a part or purchase feed for his animals.

“It’s convenient,” he said.

Hattie Bernstein can be reached at 673-3100, ext. 24, or hbernstein@cabinet.com.