For 57 years, Schumaker's sold art supplies on Lexington's Main Street to established artists like John Tuska and novice painters alike. E. Stephen Hein created floral arrangements from two different Main Street addresses for two decades, and Heritage Antiques, the oldest, still operating antique store in Lexington, has been a fixture on Lexington's main thoroughfare since 1970.
A recent shuffling of these downtown retail establishments to make way for planned development has resulted in new addresses for these downtown retail stalwarts, but none has moved far from the street that, for a combined 115 years, has been their retail home.
Downtown blooming
When the building that housed E. Stephen Hein's Main Street florist shop was sold late last year, Hein knew he didn't want to venture far from his central downtown location. When he first started shopping around for a new location, however, he was not optimistic.
"I priced several areas (close to downtown) and they were so expensive. I thought, 'Well, that won't work,'" Hein said. "The rent was just exorbitant."
Hein, who first came to Lexington 47 years ago to teach ice skating, had run a gift and antique shop in Gardenside before opening his florist business in 1988, just a few blocks down Main Street at Wellington Arms. Six years later, he moved into his space beside Heritage Antiques.
It wasn't a perfect retail location. The layout was long and narrow, and it didn't afford much opportunity for visible Main Street signage. Conducting business on Main Street also proved tricky on race days and during events that required street closings downtown, Hein said. According to Hein, roughly 90 percent of his business is conducted over the telephone with a credit card number, but the central downtown address proved convenient for making floral deliveries to anywhere in the city.
Hein wanted a location with more dressy display room and less warehouse space, he said. He found it at 611 Winchester Road, near Midland Avenue. After a two-week moving process, Hein's business began operating at its new location on January 15.
"I don't ever want to have to do it again," Hein said of the move. "But I always feel that when one door closes, a double-door opens. ... We have spaces for 25 cars in the parking lot, and we just love it. I couldn't have designed it to be any better."
Hein's display room boasts a wall of display window space along Winchester Road, wood floors and high, wood-beamed ceilings. Large round tables are stacked with a variety of pots and other containers, and there's room to showcase sizable topiaries and elaborate arrangements.
Hein's new location has 2,900 square feet, as compared to the 1,800 square feet it had on Main Street. Hein's son, Alex, has subleased 940 square feet of the new space for his own antiques and brass polishing business, which he operates alongside the florist shop.
"It just seemed like it was all meant to be," Hein said.
And the shop's street frontage on a well-traveled corridor has brought another welcome surprise for Hein's business - walk-in customers.
"We already have people stopping by on a daily basis who didn't even know we existed (previous to the move), because they see a florist sign," Hein said. "I think it's really a good move for us."
Artful relocation
Schumaker's owner Debbie Hicks has spent her entire working life in downtown Lexington. She started her retail career at Stewart's department store in the late 1960s, while her husband, Doug, worked for Schumaker's former owners.
"We were downtown when we had Bluegrass Days, the big sales, and ladies wore hats and high heels and gloves to shop every day," Debbie Hicks said.
Over the years, the Hickses saw their stretch of Main Street transforming from retail shopping to more financial services businesses, but their clientele kept coming. Doug Hicks had developed a niche in custom canvas making and gold leaf restoration, as well as cleaning and restoration of paintings.
When the company consolidated its operation in 1993, the Hickses debated whether to close their store on Southland Drive or their downtown location, but ultimately decided they liked being downtown.
But with the soon-to-be relocated Heritage Antiques moving into the building adjacent to their Main Street location, the Hickses made the decision to relocate. They went hunting for a place located in an arts district, with enough space to accommodate their retail framing and art supplies shop.
"We didn't want to move out to a mall," Debbie Hicks said. "We wanted to stay where students could get to us."
Schumaker's draws customers from not only the Unviersity of Kentucky and Transylvania University, Debbie Hicks said, but also from Eastern Kentucky University, Morehead State University, Asbury College, Midway College and Georgetown University.
Today, the company has a home at 400 Old Vine Street, with parking spaces out front, the Tuska Studio a few blocks away on Old Park Avenue, and a surprising amount of foot traffic, according to Hicks.
Schumaker's new location, with roughly 3,600 square feet, has about three-quarters as much space as the business had on Main Street, but with a more accessible and usable layout for her and her customers, Hicks said. The shop also has a sizable workroom behind its retail display area.
"All of our students really like it," Hicks said. "Except when we held classes on Main Street, we did it up by the front windows, ... and they sort of miss their audience."
All in all, Hicks said, the move has had a positive effect on her sales.
My business has picked up so much," Hicks said. "I'm so pleased with it."
And Hicks said she doesn't feel very far removed from the downtown surroundings and neighboring businesses that had grown so familiar over the years.
"I guess I'm getting older," Hicks said, "and I don't like change."
Historical retail value
The current location of Zeff Maloney's antique store, Heritage Antiques, is a stone's throw from where his family started the business, across the street, in 1970. In March, however, the shop, which is the oldest antique store still operating in Lexington to the best of Maloney's knowledge, will be moving its fine furnishings a little further from its retail birthplace.
Maloney is currently renovating two connected buildings at 238 E. Main Street, one of which was Schumaker's former location. Renovations have been a challenge at the new location, which had seen some neglect prior to Maloney's purchase of it a few years ago. But the process has brought some pleasant surprises along the way. Maloney was pleased to discover that the second building in back still holds the vestiges of a former life as a horse livery.
"It's just incredible," Maloney said. "We didn't know it until we started pulling the ceilings back, and then we realized it looks just like a stable."
Since then, some of Maloney's older customers have shared their family's recollections of a former downtown livery.
"It seems to me, it's just absolutely perfect," Maloney said. "What better thing to be in (as an antique store in Lexington) than a horse livery?"
The upcoming move has met with some initial disappointment from customers, some of whom were initially concerned that the store might close. Others simply wax nostalgic about the antique store's long history, Maloney said. Some of those customers remember shopping with Maloney's father.
"Anytime you change something, there's always a little bit of hesitancy," Maloney said. "But once they see the new space, I think that will go away quickly."
Heritage Antiques will be consolidating from 10,000 square feet of usable space at its current location to 8,000 at its new address, but Maloney feels it will be more suitable for his business. The company is currently working to reduce its inventory in an effort to reduce moving costs and hopefully start fresh at the new location, Maloney said.
For Maloney, whose business centers on well-aged antiquities, part of the attraction of downtown is the city's historical Main Street tradition. Maloney feels the developers who have made recent investments in downtown are creating the right environment and the right product for the market. And after years of investing himself and his business in Lexington's downtown community, he now feels what's old is becoming new again, and his decades-old Main Street presence is coming back into style.
"What I love is the history of downtown and the tradition of storefronts on Main Street. It's in my blood," Maloney said. "And now it's becoming the cool thing to be downtown."
And despite reports of problems in attracting retail businesses to downtown Lexington, Maloney said his company doesn't have any concerns about its decision to stick to Main Street.
"It has always been good to us," Maloney said.
E. Stephen Hein, Florist
611 Winchester Rd.
Lexington, Ky. 40505
(859)255-6249
www.estephenheinflorist.com
Schumaker's Art Supplies
400 Old Vine Street
Lexington, Ky. 40507
(859)254-0930
Heritage Antique
238 E. Main Street (starts mid-March)
Lexington, Ky. 40507
(859)253-1035