Couture Closet Boutique - La Grange, KY

123 E. Main Street, La Grange, KY 40031

http://coutureclosetboutique.com

La Grange, Kentucky’s Main Street is one of the few remaining in the United States that has a working railroad go directly down the middle of the street. We’re not talking a three-car streetcar, but a heavy CSX train that runs from Louisville to Cincinnati. (Yes, there are still about two accidents a year when people or cars believe they can out run a train.)

Couture Closet Boutique's storefront (brown awning with white letters)
can be seen to the left of the train engine. Photo by cledwards.

When an antique store closed at this address, Lauren Montgomery and Tera Davis set up shop in January 2007. As twenty-something women, they knew that there were women traveling from Louisville to the bridal district in Cincinnati to find the perfect dress.

They believed if they provided a different experience, one that was more personalized and with dresses women couldn’t find elsewhere, they could pull in customers who wouldn’t have to complete the drive to Cincinnati. They were correct. Now women stop in this small town — with a population just over 8,300 — to receive one-on-one attention and pick from designers such as Hayley Paige, Lillian West and Sara Gabriel. The owners also have a private label designer providing dresses that no customer will find in a magazine.

“We’re very hands-on and pay attention to your details and budget,” Montgomery said, “it’s something I think is lost in retail these days.”

Amongst the quaint shops with an 1880’s look along Main Street, this modern store offers private appointments and promises “a no pressure atmosphere.”

T.G. Music - Goshen, IN

123 S. Main Street, Goshen, IN 46526

http://tgmusic.org
http://www.tgschoolofmusic.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TGMUSICGOSHEN  

Owner Tim Hochstetler grew up in Goshen, Indiana.  He’s a guitarist and composer specializing in jazz, fusion, Latin, rock and classical music. His studies took him west to the University of Oregon and then east to the Berklee School of Music in Boston. Between his junior and senior years, he returned to Indiana to teach guitar. It was then that he knew what he would do.

After graduation, and with the motivation of having a number of school loans to pay off, Hochstetler got to work teaching classes above T.G. Music. At the time, the music store at street level was owned by Tim Guy Robie. (It’s where the T.G. originated.) Robie started the business in 1977 and he found Goshen to be a thriving music scene. By 2004, Hochstetler was able to buy the building. Robie continued to handle all the retail until retirement in 2013. It was then that Hochstetler took over the store as well.

T.G. Music is known for doing repairs on guitars and amps and it has a wide selection of new and used guitars, drums, pianos, violins and musical accessories.  Hochstetler, who is also a professor at nearby Indiana University South Bend, and his staff teach lessons for all the instruments they sell in the store.  The school features 20 of what Hochstetler says are Michiana's best music teachers, experienced in all styles of music. This includes Grammy Award winner Johnny B. Gayden who has performed with the Staples Singers, Son Seals, Junior Wells and KoKo Taylor, to name a few. He teaches bass to a few dozen students of all ages and different skill levels.

Located in the northern part of Indiana, the population of Goshen is just more than 32,000. Hochstetler says it still feels like a small town. The historic Main Street hit hard times in the early 2000’s. Hochstetler says there were many run down and vacant buildings. Since then, there has been an effort to revitalize the area. From 2004 to 2006, downtown went through what Hochstetler says was a “Goshen Renaissance.” People bought up old shops and started renovating.

Hochstetler is still in the process of renovating. After buying the building, he put in an apartment and an office for a massage therapist in the back. He hopes to fix the façade in the next year. The building was erected in the 1890’s and housed a bank. After the Great Depression, it transformed into a hardware store in the 1930s. The giant bank vault in the basement remained. Hochstetler uses it today to store valuable guitars. “Only Tim Robie and I know the combination,” he says, “Robie had to originally figure it out by using a stethoscope and listening.”

Customers who stop in to buy an instrument or have something repaired never know who may pop into the store. Members from the band moe. have come in. The Bros. Landreth also stopped by to check out some gear before playing a nearby concert venue. Even actor/director Steve Buscemi has been in while on location for the film, “Lonesome Jim.”

Sometimes Hochstetler thinks he would like to come up with a cool jingle for the store, “down at 123 Main Street,” he sings. “Something like the Empire Carpet song.” He likes the easy-to-remember address and says he gets a kick out of people who write it down on a piece of paper after he tells them where he is located.
 

Prairie Dog Café - McLaughlin, SD

123 Main Street, McLaughlin, SD 57642

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PrairieDogCafe

Located in the North central section of South Dakota, the city of McLaughlin easily has more prairie dogs than people. The 2010 census listed the human population at 663; it is the largest city on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation. Hunting the burrowing rodents for sport brings in people from around the world. The task is necessary as the animals create a hazard to the land where cattle and horses roam.

When Mary Petersen’s husband, Jerry, relocated the couple to the area for his insurance business, Mary was sure McLaughlin was “the end of the world.” After 30 years, she embraces the wide open area where there are no stop lights and living is, “free, easy and laid back.”

Previous owners had let their restaurant go, but the community still the needed a good gathering place. Thus, the Petersens decided to take over the business in 2004. Open daily from 7 am – 2 pm, they serve breakfast and lunch. The restaurant stays open until 8 pm for the Thursday rib eye steak special and on Fridays for Jerry’s Rockin’ Ribs barbecue. The barbecue brings customers in “from all over” from the week after Easter until the week before Thanksgiving. The cold South Dakota temperatures then give way to Fridays inside and hearty offerings like chicken fried steaks.

The restaurant’s specialty is the Prairie Dog Mound: a breakfast of hash browns piled high with red and green peppers, onions, ham, bacon or sausage, topped with Swiss and American cheese and eggs made to order.

Located about a block off the I-12 Interstate, McLauglin’s Main Street runs for about eight blocks and is the main area of commerce. The Petersens didn’t give a second thought to their address when they got into the restaurant business. However, Mary wonders if other businesses have the same problem with mail orders as they do: “No one believes this [123 Main Street] is a real address…especially Federal Express, they tell us it’s an inaccurate address and will kick it back. We have to use our home address to get things delivered.”

SnS Skate Shop - Farmington, NM

123 W. Main Street, Farmington, NM 87401

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SnSSkateShop

Farmington, New Mexico sits at just under 5,400 feet elevation in the northwest corner of the state, an area commonly referred to as the Four Corners.

On March 18, 1950, the local Daily Times newspaper reported, “Persons along Main Street once again could be seen looking skyward and pointing.” For the third consecutive day, flying saucers had been reported over the town. “Fully half of this town's population still is certain today that it saw space ships or some strange aircraft -- hundreds of them zooming through the skies.”

Today, SnS Skate Shop owner Daniel Diswood says what he sees on Main Street is a bit of a “ghost town” that is trying to work its way back. “In its heyday, it used to be big,” he says, “but JCPenney and Woolworth’s closed in the late 1980s.” The main area of commerce moved to the east side of town.

Then, in 2013, USA Today reported that Farmington was the second fastest shrinking city in the United States. (Pine Bluff, Arkansas ranked highest.) Between 2010 and 2013, Farmington's population dropped by 2.72 percent. The community is driven by oil and natural gas industries. Ray Hagerman, CEO of Four Corners Economic Development, said, "When it's no longer economical to be drilling in the basin, for example, then the jobs are going to disappear and people are going to leave."

Diswood says he believes in this community and does what he can to promote small business. He started his shop four and a half years ago. After college, he worked a number of retail jobs, including some time spent at another skateboard shop. “I found it to be too corporate,” he says, “It was more about making money than supporting the skateboarding scene.”

Wanting to have a place that was all about skateboards and the customers, he opened SnS Skate Shop. In addition to a large supply of short- and longboard equipment and accessories, local artists showcase their work and local musicians come in to play. He hosts a big two-band event on Black Friday every year. When live music isn’t playing, customers can often hear the talents of area DJs who come in to spin.

While there are two skateboard parks in town and two others within a 40-minute drive, kids aren’t the competitive types hoping to go pro. Many of them are just like Diswood was growing up, “It was the purest kind of skateboarding…an anti-sport where you could hang out with friends, go whenever you wanted to and listen to music.”

His clientele is changing a bit. While many are teenagers, he sees older skateboarders who are now grown and bring in their kids. Diswood does a lot for his young customers, everything from sponsoring a number of events throughout the year to holding “how-to” and safety clinics.

In addition to the locals, Diswood sees a fair share of tourists. More than 2,000 years ago the Anasazi lived in the area in pueblo structures built from native sandstone rock. These ruins fill the surrounding countryside and visitors come from around the globe to see them. “People read all about cowboys and Indians and come here thinking this is still the wild, wild west,” he says. The cowboy and Indian stuff is all fantasy, but Native Americans still live in the community. Diswood is half Navajo.

While the dwindling population is notable, it hasn’t yet hurt business. “The hardest thing,” he admits about his small business, “is the Internet.” Kids come by with new boards and Diswood finds out they bought them online. They don’t always realize Diswood’s ability to create customizable boards and provide other incentives with purchases such as free gear, stickers or other items.

But he enjoys being at 123 Main Street. “Sometimes people give me a funny look when I tell them the address,” he says. The novelty wasn’t something he realized when he first signed the lease, “or I would have called it 123 Skate Shop.”

The Tavern on Main - El Segundo, CA

123 Main Street, El Segundo, CA 90245

thetavernonmain.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/The-Tavern-On-Main-125484910808943/

Main Street runs north-south for all of 10 blocks in El Segundo, California, and then it dead ends on both sides: at Imperial Highway near Los Angeles International Airport on the north and at El Segundo Boulevard to the south. Because it’s not easily accessible, The Tavern on Main owner, Kristian Krieger, says that people who come to Main Street, “intend to come here.”

Since 2002, patrons have come to Krieger’s establishment with regularity. The building housed a dive bar from the early 1960s through the late 1980s. In 1986, when it was known as The Keg, the bar was featured in the Jeff Bridges film, "8 Million Ways to Die." Krieger says that an auto garage tried to make a go of it in the space for a while before it became a dive bar again, right before he purchased the location.

While a student at UCLA, Krieger organized numerous frat parties and, while majoring in geography, always wanted to open a restaurant/bar. After college, he worked for a college nightlife newspaper selling ads. That’s where he really got to know the businesses in the area. Soon after, he began to manage some of those establishments.

When he had the opportunity to strike out on his own, he had the concept in mind, but the purchase of the building came about so quickly, he really didn’t know what to call his place. People referred to it as “the tavern” and the name stuck.

Krieger has renovated the space twice since he moved in. In 2006, he expanded square footage by 50 percent. In 2014, he again enlarged the space and now it is double the size from his original floor plan. Today, patrons can catch numerous sports on more than 20 monitors. UCLA alumni often frequent to watch their teams.

The menu features typical bar food: burgers, hot dogs, sandwiches and appetizers. Kreiger tips his hat to his family’s native Philadelphia by putting cheese steaks on the menu as well. The beer menu includes imports, domestics and microbrews.  He is also quick to help out his neighborhood craft brewery. “El Segundo Brewing Company across the street always has two or three of our 14 [draft] handles,” he says.

Located on the Santa Monica Bay, El Segundo, which means “the second” in Spanish, was named such because it was the site of the second Standard Oil refinery on the West Coast (the first refinery was in Richmond, California). Taken over by Chevron in 1984, the refinery still exists and employs many in the area. Wyle Laboratories, toy manufacturer Mattel, satellite TV provider DirecTV and medical company DaVita are all headquartered in the city. Boeing, Northrup Grumman, and Raytheon Space and Airborne Systems are also some of the larger employers. As big as it may appear, with a population of 16,654, El Segundo still comes across as a small town. Krieger says locals call it "Mayberry by the Sea" (referring to the sleepy fictional town that was the setting for “The Andy Griffith Show”).

Being so close to Los Angeles does mean an actor may pop in from time to time, but Kreiger says The Tavern “isn’t a hot bed for celebrities.” Instead, he points out that he’s always wanted his place to be an “everyday place” for people: those who stop after work, meet friends to watch a game, visitors who come in for the holidays and even families who come in for weekend breakfast or early dinners. “They come in for food and then the [20-something] crowd comes in later in the evening,” he says.

Krieger serves patrons well. For eight years in a row, The Tavern was named as having the ”#1 Happy Hour" by the El Segundo Herald Reader’s Poll. The Beach Reporter readers voted the restaurant/bar as the "Best place to meet people.”

This is not lost on Krieger who says, “It’s not just about packing it in every Saturday night, it’s about having something for everybody and keeping busy all the time.”

Melt - Algonquin, IL

123 S. Main Street, Algonquin, IL 60102

http://www.meltpilates.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/meltpilates/

Owner Shannon Tampa says she’s been working out her whole life. By the age of 5, she was playing soccer and continued for 18 years. By age 12, she was running to the local rec center in the Chicago suburb of Schaumburg, Illinois, in order to lift weights. “I didn’t know what I was doing,” she says of her inexperience, “but I loved working out.”

While she pursued finance and business for her undergraduate and graduate work, her passion pulled her back into obtaining certification as a personal trainer. After stints working for larger gyms, the YMCA and privately as a personal trainer, Tampa set her sites on her own place. “Since high school, I wanted to open my own gym,” she says.

While scoping out her business plan, Tampa found that people in her area were traveling 20 to 30 miles to attend hot yoga classes. She had never taken a yoga class in her life. Tampa waited a while; she was sure that such a venue would open in Algonquin. It never did. So she filled the need.

Finding 123 S. Main Street was exactly the place she wanted. When she met with a real estate agent, Tampa was very specific, “I did not want to be in a strip mall. I wanted something special.” Located in the older, historic part of town, the building offered space for everything she wanted: spa, workout facility and hot yoga.

She opened in 2012, first hiring yoga professionals who advised her on every part of setting up the classes, which take place in 105 degree rooms. Tampa admits that at first she was worried and just hoped people would come. Today, she not only has 15 yoga classes, but 20 Pilates reformer classes, three “Boot Camp” classes, two “Tight N Tone” classes and a handful of boxing classes. Her staff of 10 teaches between 300 and 400 students.

While Tampa aspired to open a gym, she’s quick to point out that her studio is not a gym. The facility is only open when classes are in session. And the “Melt” moniker has a number of meanings. “I didn’t just think about the hot [yoga],” she says, “Melting, like relaxing; you just feel like melting.” This refers to everything from the full-service spa treatments to the exercise that loosens up clients. “Every day, people leave here feeling happy; it doesn’t feel like a job when I see so many people leave here feeling so good.”

Tampa says that the building at 123 S. Main Street is not only full of character, but is also full of that positive energy. Classes are small and personal and the hot yoga allows people to find “me time” and slow down. “There’s a lot of love and good energy…I can’t describe it,” she says. Tampa also finally tried a hot yoga class herself and now finds she’s addicted to it. “It made a huge impact on my life.”

Future Fashion Designers Academy - Mooresville, NC

123 N. Main Street, Mooresville, NC 28115

http://www.futurefashiondesigners.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FutureFashionDesigners

Photo courtesy of Google Maps

Located approximately 25 miles north of Charlotte, Mooresville, North Carolina is the home of several NASCAR drivers and racing teams. In fact, it is nicknamed "Race City USA." It isn’t the first place that would come to mind when thinking fashion design. Yet, here, on a historic stretch of Main Street, is the starting block for many future designers, taught by a true Hollywood fashion designer.

Owner Shawnelle Cherry graduated from the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM) in Los Angeles and from the UCLA extension program where she studied costume design for film.  She worked in the Los Angeles garment industry before starting her own design studio in Pacific Palisades, California. There, she specialized in evening gowns for the Oscars, Emmys, Golden Globes and the Daytime Emmy Awards. In 1995, five of her gowns were worn at the Oscars. During her 20 years in Hollywood, Cherry also had a list of more than 30 films to her credit. 

When she got engaged, she moved to Mooresville and decided to start her own business. The idea came about as her father was going through treatments for lung cancer. She read the book, "One Month to Live: Thirty Days to a No-Regrets Life" by Kerry Shook.  Cherry asked herself what she really wanted to do. "I discovered what would really feed my soul was to share my talents and teach kids (of all ages) my passion for the art.”

While the engagement didn’t last, the business did. She stayed in Mooresville, opened her doors in January 2010 and offered classes in sewing and design. Students do everything in the process from sketching to draping and sewing. They also show off their work on the runway.

Cherry’s busiest time is summer, when she has camps from June through August. Students as young as 8-years-old sign up for half-day and full-day beginner and intermediate classes. Last summer, almost all the slots were quickly filled.

While there are some other businesses like this in New York and San Francisco, this is the only designer academy in the area. Students come from as far away as South Carolina. Many of the kids Cherry mentors end up continuing with their talents and study fashion design at North Carolina State or Savannah College of Art and Design.

Cherry is passionate about her desire to share her skills and lifetime of experience with kids of all ages and skill levels. To expand her reach, in addition to her in-house classes, she has started Project Sew*Way, an online subscription program where kids can get projects mailed to them on a monthly basis.

“Many kids know how to sew,” Cherry says, “but if they go and pick their own projects, sometimes they are too hard and when they are too hard, they sometimes just quit.” That’s what Cherry says happened during her childhood. She just doesn’t want kids to stop when they have the interest. “We send them the fabric, thread, stuffing, everything they need to do the project.”

The hope is that these easy-to-do projects will not only spark imagination, but also build confidence by seeing ideas take form. Kids are able to build their self-esteem and confidence because they are able to complete the projects.  Even though the kits can be sent anywhere in the world, Cherry keeps connected via an online community.

Now more than six years out of the frantic pace of Hollywood, Cherry notes how much she really likes downtown's revitalized Main Street and Mooresville (which is growing so quickly it now has a second zip code). She adds that there are some perks to having the 123 N. Main Street address. “I get some of the funniest mail,” she says, noting that hers is often used as a test address. One time, she got a package with so many cookies that she couldn’t give them all away.

Leicester Hardware - Leicester, NY

123 Main Street, Leicester, NY 14481

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/leicesterhardware?ref=br_rs

Since the early 1900s, 123 Main Street in Leicester, New York has been a hardware store. Anthony Richard Christiano III, best known to area residents as Dickie, purchased the McVean hardware store in the 1940s. He and his family owned and operated Christiano Hardware through 2013.

In 2014, Dale Drew, who owned Drew’s True Value Hardware in Buffalo, New York, was looking to leave the city for the country. He and his son, Doug, starting searching the area for a new location for a hardware store. They found 123 Main Street, which had been boarded up since Christiano’s closed in 2013. After putting in a new floor and setting up the store from the ground up, the store opened on April 1, 2015.

Today, everyone in the Drew family is involved in the business: Dale, his wife Colleen, Doug and his wife, Carrie. Carrie even brings in their five-month-old son, Robert. “At first,” Carrie says, “I worried about bringing [an infant] to a hardware store. Now, I don’t think twice.” Someone in the family is always there to tend to him as they work the business. Carrie says some of the regulars even come by just to check on Robert.

In this small town of 2,200, the Drews know many of the customers by first name. Carrie says Leicester is a sleepy town, somewhat like the fictional Mayberry of “The Andy Griffith Show.” Sometimes people come into the hardware store, not because they need an item, but just to say hello. However, there are also a number of repeat customers, many of them who are renovating older farmhouses in the area. “They’ll walk in and say, ‘Today I’m here for plumbing [supplies],” says Carrie.

Customer service is important to the Drews. They know there are a number of big box stores that stock what they stock and people could go elsewhere. “But we have more than hardware,” Carrie points out. In addition to plumbing and electrical supplies, they have gardening supplies, housewares and items for farming equipment.

As the only hardware in town, customers convey that they like to spend their money at a local, family-owned business. Carrie says the family works hard to give customers what they want. She comments that she learns a lot just by what the customers come in and request.

And, while they knew their location would be “an easy address to remember,” the Drews were careful not to name the hardware store after themselves. “Leicester Hardware,” says Carrie, “had a community feel to it. It’s like we don’t own it, it’s a part of the town.”

Tanya’s…The Girl Garage - Vicksburg, MI

123 S. Main Street, Vicksburg, MI 49097

https://www.tanyasthegirlgarage.com
https://www.facebook.com/tanyasgirlgarage/?fref=ts

Photo courtesy of Google Maps

Ask owner Tanya H. DeLong how her business came to be and she’ll tell you, “It was a God thing, seriously.”

With a degree in accounting, DeLong worked as a financial analyst for Pfizer, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies. At Pfizer, they had an in-house art show where she entered a couple of her custom-made purses. Suddenly, colleagues wanted to purchase them from her and then others started requesting them.

A heavenly intervention came in 2006 when DeLong developed a bad case of bronchitis and a 103 degree fever. “I kept having dreams throughout the day about making custom purses for people. And then,” she interjects that someone would think the notion crazy, “I was given an entire business plan.” Even DeLong’s husband questioned how she would make it come to life.

Two days later, a friend called because there was a church craft fundraiser and someone had canceled at the last minute. She asked if DeLong would take the booth and fill it with her purses. She did. Orders came in.

“That was on a Saturday. By Wednesday, I got another call,” DeLong says. Another abandoned booth at another craft fair. DeLong went in and sold her purses. Another 25 orders came in. As she was packing up materials for the day, a woman approached and asked if DeLong would do a home party. By the time DeLong got to the parking lot, yet another woman approached with the same request.

From this, a giant side business developed. Word-of-mouth orders rolled in and requests for parties spawned as many orders as attendees. By 2007, Tanya’s Totes opened in a 10 by 10 space at the front of a local beauty salon. Then, in June 2007, DeLong’s job at Pfizer was eliminated as they laid off and transferred more than 4,000 employees.

Taking some of the funds she got from Pfizer, she took a chance and opened her own shop on Vicksburg’s historic Main Street in 2008. By this time, she’d created 1,800 purses. Customers were also requesting classes and sewing tips. DeLong, who had been sewing since the age of 5, accommodated those requests.

Then, when the painting and yarn supply shop down the street turned more to just painting, DeLong served the customers who were seeking yarn, knitting and crocheting classes. “The purses started dying off,” she said, “we’re a village of about 2,500 and I sold more than 1,800. Just about everyone had one.”

At one point in 2009, one of the male customers at Tanya’s Totes said, “This isn’t a purse shop any more, it’s a ‘girl garage,’” referring to the preferred hangout for men. The name stuck. In August 2014, DeLong bought the building at 123 Main Street. Built in 1850, the building first housed a blacksmith. From 1940 through the late 1990s, an appliance store filled the space.

Today, the front of the shop has more than 89 different yarns and supplies in stock; the old carriage house in back serves as Tanya’s classroom. She holds six classes a week that include knitting, crocheting, tatting, hand embroidery and long arm quilting. In what DeLong describes as a “Norman Rockwell kind of town,” her business is well known on the quaint Main Street where people gather and walk from barber shop and diner to hardware store and art gallery.

Generated by customer request from the start, DeLong says that still about 70 percent of her business is due to someone specifically asking for it. She likes it that way. DeLong says that like so many successful small businesses across the U.S., the focus has to be about great customer service, “People ask about something and I will do my best to find whatever it is, because I can.” And she knows handmade items are valued because “they are a lost art.”  DeLong is doing her best to help people find that art again.

The Laurie Holladay Shop - Gordonsville, VA

123 S. Main Street, Gordonsville, VA 22942

http://www.laurieholladayinteriors.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/The-Laurie-Holladay-Shop-155280871179413/timeline/

In the rolling hills of central Virginia, Gordonsville is located between two historic points: Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello  and James Madison’s Montpelier. Today, the town of 1,496 is described in guidebooks as a charming southern town with quaint shops, acclaimed restaurants and galleries.

Laurie Holladay’s parents, Laurel and Leonard LaPlaca, started Nassau Interiors in Princeton, New Jersey in the late 1940s. Holladay says it had everything from beds and sofas to custom-made slipcovers and drapery. The LaPlacas would often travel to Florida and stop in Virginia along the way. Holladay grew to love the area, especially the horse farms. When she relocated to Virginia and opened her shop, she made sure that it retained “the spirit and core values my dad’s business had.”

Since 1994, Holladay’s shop has offered classic furniture, original art works, prints, antiques, gifts and other accessories. About a quarter of her business is dedicated to lamp repair and creation. In fact, they can custom build a lamp from just about any item: riding hats, antique seltzer bottles, musical instruments, duck decoys, trophies, bronzed baby shoes or cookie jars. Much of the work is done by Laurie’s husband, Jim. He started working on lamps and shades on the side. Now he and Laurie work at the shop together. “We do what nobody else does,” Holladay points out, “Lamp repair, custom work, rewiring…to any fixture and all on the premises.”

While Gordonsville is small, it is well situated near many destinations such as Richmond, Charlottesville and Washington, DC. In addition to horse farms, the area is also well known for its vineyards. Holladay says that while her shop is always busy, she definitely gets a bump in business from the tourist traffic during the summer and autumn; customers come in from all over.

This popularity has lead to resurgence in the area. Over the last 15 years, Holladay says there has been more of a focus on preservation and restoration. New business owners have come in and cleaned up historic buildings. The town is also working on major improvements with the Main Street Streetscape Project.  In March 2015, they began replacing deteriorating sidewalks, making crosswalks safer and installing new lighting and trees. Holladay says Main Street has always been walkable, with an artisan jeweler, clock repair, pastry shop, deli and French restaurant all nearby. Now, improvements include wider brick sidewalks, helping with pedestrian traffic.

Holladay says that there aren’t many shops like hers that offer the customization and care -- modeled on standards of the shop her parents had – around any more.  That’s one of the reasons The Laurie Holladay Shop is open seven days a week. Except for major holidays, “We try never to be closed,” she says, “even in the winter, and we’ve had some hard winters, I feel compelled to be open even if we’re the only place that’s open.”