About Us

Serving the home hearth needs of Duluth-Superior residents, designers and homebuilders, The Fireplace Corner is the retail and commercial hearth products division of Ace Hardware Downtown in Duluth, Minnesota. Established in 1945, Ace Hardware, like many of the local hardware stores, was an outlet for a variety of home heating products. In 1974 the store moved one block down from it's original location to 212 West Superior Street, and a new "Hearth Shop" was opened, offering fireplace tools, screens and accessories.
 
During the late seventies, the zero-clearance wood fireplace came on the scene, providing homebuilders with a low-cost, highly efficient fireplace option for inclusion in newly-built homes. This development kicked off the hearth products boom. As a result, Ace Hardware Downtown became established as a builder/contractor distributor for Heat & Glo Products and developed a niche as a provider of those products in the Duluth area residential home building market.
 
Heat N Glo's development of the first direct-vent gas fireplace in 1987 widened the scope of innovation and application of the fireplace within the home system, allowing Ace Downtown to offer more hearth options to an already active consumer base. After a number of expansions to the downtown Duluth hearth shop, Ace opened The Fireplace Corner in the Pike Lake Shopping Center in June of 2001.