According to the County Assessor's office, the current Rompage Hardware building was built in 1962. The founder of the company, Paul Rompage, died in 1960. His wife, Olive, who was the bookeeper for the store, had died the previous year. Their only child, Josephine, had died in 1953. Paul did have a number of brothers who came out to California with their parents between 1895 and 1900, so it is possible that one of them ran the business and kept the name.
Update: the younger brother of Paul, George W. Rompage, was listed as being in the "hardware business" at "Rompage Hardware" when he filled out his WW I draft card in 1918. The address of the business is listed on the card as being at 5506 Hollywood Blvd. He only outlived his brother Paul by a couple of years. The other younger brother, William was listed on his draft card as a clerk in the store so it really was a family business. They had an older brother, Edward, but he was living in San Francisco in 1918.
Yelp has a lot of good reviews of the business, calling it a "good old fashioned hardware store".
Last edited by oldstuff; Oct 24, 2013 at 7:16 PM.
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