“McNary's Jewelry Store closing its doors after 110 years” |
| McNary's Jewelry Store closing its doors after 110 years Posted: 30 Aug 2010 01:36 AM PDT This article has been read 265 times. Sitting in his office during a lunch break last week, Joe Ames recalled holiday shopping seasons of years past when his McNary's Jewelry Store was part of a thriving downtown business district. "There would be 50 people in here at Christmastime," recalled Ames, 88, noting that he and his wife, Margaret, would always hire five clerks to handle the extra holiday volume. The Ames are in the process of closing McNary's, and selling off the remainder of jewelry. Ames said he made the decision to close over the past few months, noting that most of the business recently was in jewelry repair, not sales. Many of his downtown competitors, from Taper's to S.A. Myers, went out of business long ago, he said. The Ames recently sold the building that housed their store at 31 N. Main St. to John and Cheryl Hopper. Joe Koval of Coldwell Banker, who handled the sale, said the Hoppers plan to use part of the first and second floors as law offices. An art studio adjacent to the jewelry store will remain in the building. Ames, his wife, and their daughter, Mary Elizabeth DeWitt, who has been helping them wind down the 110-year-old business, said the closing is bittersweet, with longtime customers stopping in to wish them well. "They take it really to heart," DeWitt said. "People see that we're going out of business and they say, 'My diamond ring came from McNary's,'" Ames said, noting that diamonds were his stock in trade. When asked how many engagement rings and wedding bands he sold over the years, he shakes his head, unable to quantify his role in putting a gleam on future brides' hands. "It's sad for me being his wife, because this whole place has been his life," Margaret McNary said. The original store was founded on North Main Street by Thomas McNary in 1900, just north of its present location. Ames shows a black-and-white photo of McNary, standing ramrod straight and dressed like a banker in a top coat and dress hat. According to Ames, in addition to selling jewelry, McNary was a watch and clock repairman as well as an optician. A native of Waynesburg, Ames moved to Washington with his family when he was 10. As a young man, he worked in McNary's for his aunt, Rose Murray, for six years, then purchased the business in 1943. He took a mail-order course from the Gemological Association of the United States to learn how to value diamonds and other gems. In those days, Washington was a bustling business center, he said, recalling the streetcars that carried people from Tylerdale and East Washington and from a line that ran to town along Maiden Street from Washington Park. Much of Thomas McNary's stamp remains in Ames' store: Heavy wooden and glass display cases line the walls and reach for the stamped metal ceiling. Between the store and the back office is the original safe, an imposing black, double-door model whose inside panels reveal ornate decorative art and a simple message in block letters: "If It Comes From McNary's It's Good." Margaret Ames noted that the sheer weight of the safe makes it impossible for it to be moved from the store. McNary's original message that assured customers of his integrity wasn't lost on Ames and his wife, who continued to provide the kind of customer service that small shops like theirs practiced to keep customers coming back. Ames, who also repaired jewelry, said he was often asked to appraise diamonds customers brought to him, first performing a visual test, then placing them in a machine that would light up green if the stone was real. DeWitt recalled how her mother would gift-wrap all of the purchases, no matter how small, topping off each of them with hand-made bows. She showed rolls of Christmas gift wrap stored under the counter and motioned to a shelf behind the cash register that she said was heaped with wrapped gifts waiting for customers to pick them up. When she was a girl and met someone who didn't know her, DeWitt said all she had to do was mention that her parents owned McNary's. "That's how you were able to be known," she said. "Everybody knew McNary's. It made you feel special." This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Content Keyword RSS To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment