Schmidt’s & Serafine’s Inc. True Value has roots in Waterbury going back 100 years. Now, the long-time family business is up for sale.

Company president and co-owner Jeff Schmidt, 71, has worked at the hardware store for more than 50 years and has been part of the ownership for two decades. He is one of five co-owners who have decided to put the business up for sale.

“The decision is tough because it’s a family business and we have no next generation that wants to be involved for various reasons,” Schmidt said. “It’s very tough. It’s been 100 years for us and we’ve been at this location since 1958. The history is huge, and it’s been a hard decision.”

Jeff Schmidt’s great-grandfather, Charles H. Schmidt, opened up a hardware store in 1925 at 825 North Main St. in Waterbury with his sons Ellsworth Schmidt and Charles Schmidt Jr., Jeff’s father. The business was open for about 10 years before closing during The Great Depression. Charles Schmidt Jr. reopened a hardware store in Old North Square in Waterbury and, in the 1950s, opened a second location in the Waterville section of the city. At that time, the Serafine family operated a hardware store in Waterbury. The three stores combined at the current 464 Chase Ave. location and called it Schmidt’s & Serafine’s.

“We grew up in the neighborhood in Waterbury, in the Bucks Hill neighborhood, where there were seven houses in a row and were all related. Most of us worked at the store,” said Jeff Schmidt, who started working at the store in the early 1970s. “My grandfather would take the van, and everyone would come down in one vehicle and when we closed, we would all go home in the van together. We worked from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. then. It was always a tight family thing.”