HENRICO COUNTY, Va. -- Richmond-area seafood eaters have been buying fresh fish and shellfish from P.T. Hastings for more than 100 years.
This week, the family announced they would permanently close P.T. Hastings Seafood.
That announcement came weeks after Powell "P.T" Hastings III, grandson of the founder, suffered a brain injury.
"It's very heartbreaking mainly because my cousin who owns it has had this severe fall and is on a respirator," Hastings' cousin Cindy Anderson said. "It's been very hard on our family. We're all pitching in to help my aunt and my cousin, his mother and sister. We're a tight family and we are trying to pitch in to help them close the store. And it's a very sad thing for all of us."
Anderson said she was moved to see customers leaving notes and messages for the family outside the Old Parham Road business.
"My heart sunk. I ended up leaving this paper and pen and tape here in case others want to do it.," she said. "Every day I'm up here, there's constant traffic, and it just really breaks my heart to see a third-generation seafood place end like this with an injury. It's very, very sad for our whole family, but we're tight. And we'll make it.
Nikki-Dee Ray visited with P.T. Hastings III at the family business near the intersection of Parham Road and West Broad Street back in 2016.
The family will hold a sale on Saturday to clear out items housed in the West End business for decades.
"Everything from wooden ship wheels, to Blue Marlins hanging on the walls, to lobster traps to 1/2 price condiments, stainless steel tables. and restaurant equipment and supplies. Even the marquee has to go," the business posted on social media.
CBS 6 interviewed P.T. Hastings Jr. about his family business in a 1985 story about the state of seafood in Richmond.
The social post from P.T. Hastings III's family also thanked devoted customers who, for generations, helped keep P.T. Hastings in business.
"Without you, we would not have been the success that we continued to be," the post read. "Please continue to pray for PT as he is still in the fight of his life."
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