A Main Street gem closes its doors

SALISBURY — When Joni Peck Ford opened her first retail store, Garlande, Ltd., on Academy Street 25 years ago this June with her then-business partner, Sandra Stevenson, there were many stores that shared the town’s commercial center with her.

Reminiscing  at The Perfect Pear on Main Street (across from The White Hart), which she has co-owned with Heidi Beneke Main since 1998, and which they are now closing down for good, Peck Ford listed some of those now-historic shops and inns: Babette’s, For the Birds, The Linen Press, Thornhill Florist, Friendship Artisans, the Knitting Store, the Village Store, the Connecticut Yankee, Shagroy Market, the Ragamont Inn and “a pillar of the community,†The White Hart Inn.

“Bud Trotta had the package store then, before he sold it to Joe Mulligan [Salisbury Package Store], and which is now Salisbury Wines,†Peck Ford said. “Thornhill is the last of those under the same ownership. It was an active business community, then and now, where one of the shops went from being Thornhill, to Chiawalla, to Walker-Lansing and is now At Home in the Country.â€

She moved Garlande, Ltd., from Academy Street to Main Street in 1989.

“Salisbury has taken so much pride in Main Street businesses, and that’s what has made it a healthy, vibrant community,†Ford said.

Her hope, and Beneke Main’s, is that a variety of downtown stores and restaurants continue to thrive well into the future, with independent ownership maintained and valued in the center of town and the merchants all working together.

“All have the same goals, and there’s strength in numbers. Lakeville and Salisbury should be seen as one, and the growth in Millerton is not a negative thing, it’s positive.â€

Those who visit and shop in the area benefit from having three centers so close to one another, giving them more variety, more choices, she believes.

“There are so many wonderful businesses here now, and they take great pride in presenting themselves. And even with these businesses, it’s stayed rural and picturesque, it hasn’t become urbanized, with corporate ownership.â€

Beneke Main and Peck Ford have no regrets.

“We had a great run and amazing customers,†Peck Ford said. “The outpouring since we announced our closing has been amazing. We’ve gotten calls, letters and e-mails of support.â€

They’ve built relationships with whole families of customers, she said, some who have children in the area prep schools, such as Hotchkiss and Salisbury School.

“It’s been years of building relationships, and it’s hard to lose that interaction. It’s bittersweet, we loved what we were doing.â€

But circumstances in each of their lives dictated that it was time for a transition, and they remain hopeful as they try to sell the building where Perfect Pear was located that it will be maintained as retail space.

They believe Salisbury is a town whose business community should flourish, with a range of shops that represent the community.

“We want it to be a destination spot,†said Beneke Main.

She and Peck Ford both noted that the small retail shops, eateries, galleries and more draw people and that, while towns have to be protected, it is possible to have a respectful growth pattern that is good for the entire region.

“Main Street should be recognized as being part of what you value as a homeowner here,†Peck Ford said. “People need to ask themselves, and then make a real choice, what they’d like Main Street to represent, and then support those businesses.â€

Online buying, often with free shipping at the holidays, affected their sales over the past couple of years, she said, but personal interaction matters. If residents want their towns to remain active and to prosper, they need to support their town’s businesses.

“We need to recognize that every aspect of the community matters in understanding the big picture, having an awareness of the whole community, including business, education (including the public and private schools), real estate, and transportation,†Peck Ford said. “The issue of rising gas prices makes it more important than ever to keep supporting our towns, trying to shop within a 5-mile radius. Staying home is going green.â€

Both Peck Ford and Beneke Main have moved on to other work, Beneke Main at J. Stack in Salisbury and Peck Ford in Great Barrington. They will consider continuing custom work, such as party planning and weddings, and can be reached at perfectpear@mindspring.com.

Latest News

The Creators:
Sam Guindon's artistic palette

Norfolk painter Sam Guindon.

Jennifer Almquist

Painter Sam Guindon is an earnest young man who paints light with the skill of John Singer Sargent. Guindon’s attention to technique harks back to an earlier time when artists studied under a master, learned anatomy, perspective, how to make their own pigment, and closely observed the work of great artists. Guindon has studied oil painting since he was nineteen. In a recent show of his paintings in his hometown of Norfolk, Connecticut, Guindon sold 40 of the 42 paintings he exhibited.

Guindon’s sketchbooks are windows into his creative mind and a well-traveled life, packed with vignettes, ink drawings, observations and thoughts written in the margins. His subjects range from sketches done in gouache at the National Gallery, to ink drawings of vine-covered trees in Costa Rica, to the interior of an airplane drawn with the perspective of a fisheye lens, to colorful bottles of hot sauce. Currently Guindon is teaching art at the Compass Atelier in Maryland.

Keep ReadingShow less
Photography exhibit reaches back to 1800s

Photographs from Thomas K. Levine will be on display at the Berkshire School.

Provided

'Three Centuries of Photography” from the collection of Thomas K. Levine will be on display at the Warren Family Gallery at the Berkshire School from Nov. 1 to Dec. 21. The exhibit features 75 original prints, spanning the history of photography from the 19th century to today. The opening reception is on Friday, Nov. 1, from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

Thomas Levine, a former Paramount Pictures executive and father of a Berkshire School junior, brings together works by renowned photographers like Carleton Watkins, Julia Margaret Cameron, Alfred Stieglitz, Diane Arbus, and Richard Misrach. The show includes landscapes, portraits, and a recent focus on vintage images of notable historical figures, including Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King Jr., and George Harrison.

Keep ReadingShow less