Coming back strong despite devastating Harper’s Ferry fire
Article By: Bonnie Williamson Photos By: Josh Triggs “We lost everything,” says Cindi Dunn, who owns The Vintage Lady shop along with her husband Billy Ray. “We literally watched it burn. It was unbelievable,” says Billy Ray. In the early morning hours two years ago on July 23, a horrendous fire struck the small historic town of Harpers Ferry, WV. The fire, located in the commercial area of town, reportedly started on a back patio in a building owned by Doug Alexander. The building housed Private Quinn’s Pub. Quinn’s Pub has reopened but is now called Almost Heaven Pub and Grill. Flames destroyed three buildings housing eight retail shops and two apartments. A fourth building suffered some fire damage. Luckily, no one was killed or injured. According to Courtney Rosemond, public information specialist for the West Virginia Fire Marshal’s office, the fire did about $4 million worth of damage. Ironically, the only good thing about the inferno was the cause remains undetermined. Otherwise, if fire officials said arson was involved, the site would have been declared a crime scene, keeping retailers from moving back. Despite the destruction, the sickening smell of the burning buildings and shock of watching her shop at 181 Potomac St. turn to cinders, Cindi never considered giving up on starting anew in Harpers Ferry. “I never hesitated to reopen. We love it here,” Cindi says. “We chose not to be defeated.” “It was terrible looking at that empty space, but Cindi’s positive attitude gave us new hope,” Billy Ray says. Cindi went on the lookout for a new space immediately and found one at 196 High St. on a street above and parallel to her former store. She began ordering inventory from her home and moved into her new store Labor Day weekend six weeks after the fire. “It’s so beautiful here. We have the mountains and the national park. And the community is so supportive,” Cindi says. Shortly after the fire, the Harpers Ferry/ Bolivar Historic Towns Foundation sought donations to help the businesses hurt by the fire. More than $50,000 donations were received. Cindi and her husband have been running The Vintage Lady in Harpers Ferry for 14 years. Both of the Dunns faced challenges even before the fire. Neither one started out in the retail business. Both she and her husband were educators in Marietta, Ohio, before relocating to West Virginia in 2000 to be near family. Even before the move from Ohio, Cindi found she liked to make jewelry from buttons and a variety of other materials. She gave her creations as gifts, receiving numerous compliments. She began entering juried shows...
Leigh Ann Hixon: Baking is Her Passion
Article By: Tricia Lynn Strader Photos By: Josh Triggs Some people are natural-born cooks. They come by it naturally. They’d rather be in the kitchen than almost anywhere else. And a subset of those great cooks are the bakers… the ones who make the delectable desserts we can’t wait to sink our teeth into. Leigh Ann Hixon is one of those bakers. “I like to cook regular things, but baking is my passion,” she says. For the past three years, she’s operated Snix Snax Shax Bakery out of her home in Hancock, Md. Business is growing thanks to her delicious treats, the Internet, and word of mouth. One could say baking is in her genes. She says her father is a great cook, and he gets his skills from his mother. Leigh Ann, 47, watched her grandmother while growing up and credits her for a lot of her talent. The family visited Leigh Ann’s grandmother Edith Coleman in Alabama in the summers. Leigh Ann’s dad Ken Coleman was in the Army Corps of Engineers and ended up in Pennsylvania for a time working on a lake project. He met her mom Millie, and they married. They set up housekeeping in Alabama, but when Leigh Ann was young, they moved back to Pennsylvania near where her mother hailed. “I was born in Alabama,” says Leigh Ann. “We moved back to where my mom’s from, and I used to visit my grandmother for two weeks every summer until I was 20. I watched her. She was a cake and biscuit maker.” Leigh Ann says her grandmother was always making Southern buttermilk biscuits and homemade cakes from scratch. “She made a yellow cake with caramel icing and nuts I can still remember,” she said. “She used a lot of pecans and used to ship us pecans from the South.” She still has her grandmother’s biscuit bowl that was used to make the dough for all those years of biscuits. It was passed down to her. Leigh Ann began baking seriously at 16 years old. She started out making cookies and brownies. She then added pies, muffins and cakes. She always enjoyed baking, more so than cooking anything else.”Mom’s mother Ruth Smith baked breads and pies,” she says. “Mom cooks and bakes, but Dad is really good at it and enjoys it more. Mom still works, so he’s the cook and baker for the most part. And they do a lot of canning. Their homemade sweet relish is really good. I have to learn how to make that.” Some of her specialties are banana nut, blueberry, and lemon poppy seed muffins. In keeping...
A Cut Above The Rest
Article By: Jeffery Marcum Photos By: Josh Triggs An old adage states that “Variety is the spice of life.” Most of us demand variety. We want options and crave individuality. We want it our way instead of being forced into what others have chosen. This is true in the clothes that we wear, the way we order our food at restaurants, and how we decorate our homes. We expect to be able to customize our lives. Of course, this is not always an easy task. Most stores have limited options. You may have to go from store to store to get what you want, or order something from the internet instead of a local company. Furniture stores are no exception. They are stocked with mass-produced items that may not be the right size, or the right color, or the right material. Often there is no opportunity for individuality because the furniture is made from a pattern in a factory. So, you’re left to wander to the next store in hopes that you will find exactly what you want. Todd Gladfelter, owner of Worthy’s Run Furniture, is here to help. Todd custom builds the furniture that you want. Most of his current business is kitchen islands, but he has also built tables, benches, buffets, and sink basins. You decide the dimensions, the colors, the materials, and the style. You also decide what options you want. Todd is there to guide you and make sure that you get exactly what you want. Todd started his business as a part-time job several years ago. He took what he learned from shop class in high school, and his experience building homes around Mount Snow in Vermont, along with his experience repairing antique furniture for his wife’s shop, and turned a hobby into a business that he enjoys going to every day. He started by using his two-car garage in Hedgesville as a shop and sold his wares on the internet. He set up a shop on Etsy (Worthy’s Run Furniture) and created a web page at Worthysrunfurniture.com to interact with customers. Recently, Todd has outgrown his garage and is currently renting space in Hagerstown. He has hired two more full-time employees and has another who works part-time as a painter. He also has customers all across the United States. With all of this rapid growth, Todd is optimistic about his future, but has to remain cautious. “It was a little bit of a learning curve moving into a bigger space,” Todd admitted. He can no longer walk just a dozen steps to get to his workshop. The larger area means more projects can...
Experience Counts For A Lot
Article By: Paul Long Photos By: Josh Triggs The way Jason Singer sees it, experience counts for a lot. Singer, the owner of Berkeley County-based CounterTop Solutions, estimated that he and his employees have remodeled more than 1,000 kitchens during the last 20 years, and he believes that’s something that potential customers might want to take into consideration. “We’re proud of the fact we’ve built a place you really should see before you complete your project,” he said recently, “even if you go with someone else.” Singer grew up in the kitchen and bath business. For many years, parents owned a showroom called Innerspace in Hagerstown Md. He left the area for awhile and explored other aspects of the construction business before returning to this area and opening CounterTop Solutions in Hagerstown in 2005. He has worked extensively in both the residential and commercial building sectors. “I’ve been lucky to have the skills to work with my hands,” said Singer, adding that he sees himself as more of an entrepreneur these days, and he has been trying to branch out into other things. Every now and then, though, it feels good to handle the work himself. In December 2016, he relocated his business to the Eastern Panhandle, opening the Earth Art Slab Studio and Granite Factory at 286 Langston Blvd. near Spring Mills. At approximately the same time, he launched a new showroom, the Earth Art Slab Studio, at 2625 Valley Ave. in Winchester. Earth Art is CounterTop Solutions’ particular brand of stone, Singer explained. “We wanted to bring up the retail portion of our business,” Singer said, explaining that CounterTop Solutions has been focusing more on retail kitchens since 2013, when it opened a retail showroom in Williamsport, Md. It was at that time that Singer and his staff began photographing slabs on a green screen, an important advancement in the design process. Moving to West Virginia made sense from a location standpoint, according to Singer. While Berkeley County’s population is substantially smaller than that of Washington County, Md., Singer’s market is centered along the Interstate 81 corridor, and his proximity to I-70 is also a bonus. CounterTop Solutions serves customers in Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia as well as Washington, D.C. Its residential coverage area runs from Harrisburg, Pa., to the north; Harrisonburg, Va., to the south; Deep Creek, Md., to the west and Frederick, Md., to the east. The company also has commercial clients in Baltimore, Washington and several communities in northern Virginia. As a general rule, Singer said, CounterTop Solutions will travel anywhere within a 100-mile radius of Berkeley County to work with a...
Local Favorite enjoys 50 years of food, community
Article By: Samantha Cronk Photos By: Josh Triggs Although there are no tables, chairs or seating, that has not stopped customers from flocking to Bob’s Carry Out, and the kitchen has never been busier cranking out pizza, burgers, wings and more. And the news couldn’t put a bigger smile on owner Bob Widmeyer’s face as the store celebrates its fiftieth anniversary. Reflecting on his 50 years in the food industry, Widmeyer, 88, acknowledges that he did not have the most traditional entry into the industry. From 1953-1963, Widmeyer worked shift work at DuPont, with each week a different shift. When he and his wife Dorothy began to have a family, the constant changing schedules in his shifts began to cause friction between the couple. “We just couldn’t get along, and I knew it wasn’t us, it’s the shift work. Every week I’m on a different shift and I just can’t adjust myself. I knew I had to go. I didn’t know what I was going to do, but I knew I had to do something. So, I got some money and opened our first restaurant,” he said. “I love food. There’s nothing I can’t do with it.” Widmeyer opened his first restaurant, The Colonial Restaurant, in 1966. The restaurant opened with a very different design than what Bob’s Carry Out is today. The Colonial Restaurant began as a full-service restaurant that could seat more around 175 people. It was located in the old Berkeley Hotel, which was owned by the Citizen’s National Bank. It was not long after opening though, when the bank chose to tear down the Berkeley Hotel to build a new bank in that location, and Widmeyer had to move. Rather than give up his desire to provide food to his native Martinsburg city, Widmeyer began the search for a new location. It was in driving around with his wife that he spotted a great spot, an empty building at the corner of Martin Street and Raleigh Street, the current location of the Martinsburg Fire Station. Widmeyer rented the building and enjoyed 10 years at that location before the City of Martinsburg, who owned the property, decided to build a fi re station at that location. Liking the downtown location, Widmeyer purchased the land on the adjourning corner of Martin Street and Raleigh Street, its current location at 130 N. Raleigh St. “We purchased the property, and I built the building in 1976. We had our grand opening in August, and it was well accepted by the community. When we opened the store defi nitely didn’t look like it does now. It was very low scale....
Everything Old Is New Again at New Charles Town Yarn Store
By: Bonnie Williamson Photos By: Josh Triggs Knitting and crocheting may seem like dying arts, but Yarnability, a new business in Charles Town, WV, is taking advantage of renewed interest in these hobbies, as well as teaching these skills to another generation. During summers in upstate New York when she was about ten years old, Karen Frail, Yarnability’s owner, was taught how to crochet by her aunt. However, her career didn’t include crocheting or knitting initially. She received bachelors and master’s degrees in speech therapy. “But I always had a focus on the arts, like music and theater in high school and college,” Frail says. “In the early 2000s, knitting became popular again. It became hip to make your own things.” Frail began working at Yarnability in Shepherdstown, WV, in 2012. At the time, the shop was owned by Susan Wolcott, the former owner of Y2Knit in Funkstown, Md. from 2003 to 2012. Yarnability was located in Shepherdstown for two years on Duke Street then relocated to Princess Street where it remained from 2014 to 2017. “I began to expand my skills since I was surrounded by yarn,” Frail says. “When Susan wanted to retire, she had hopes of continuing the community of knitters and crocheters that Yarnability had helped in creating, so she sold the store to me.” Frail decided to move the store to 130 W. Washington St., Charles Town in March of this year. “I decided to make the move to Charles Town because the area is really pushing the arts with its promotion of an art and cultural district in town, and I wanted to be in it,” Frail said. “It’s also a central location for customers in surrounding areas like Leesburg and Winchester, Va. and Frederick, Md. I felt Charles Town also needed a local yarn shop. “Yarnability is an 850 square foot space, which carries a wide variety of superior yarn, quality tools and classes for the beginner and advanced learners in knitting and crochet. Frail says that Susan Wolcott still teaches classes part-time.”She had quite a following of customers from the Funkstown and Shepherdstown stores,” Frail says. Private lessons are also available at $20 for 90 minutes of instruction. Frail says she offers weekly learn to knit and learn to crochet classes in group settings at $20 for a two-hour session. “We provide project-guided classes, as well as instruction for customer chosen patterns and projects. We invite people to come in with projects they want help with,” she says. She offered a six-week class for the summer and plans to start another one in the fall. The summer class ran from May...
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