Cross Gate Gallery framing specialist Mary Phillips. Photo by Daniel Sigal
The year was 1978, and Mary Phillips – a former stay-at-home mom, whose children had grown and moved away – was bored. She had spent the past two years working part-time at working in the framing department of Sutherland’s Antiques, but when the business sold, she found herself out of a job. Sick of filling her days with housework, Phillips went to get coffee one day with a friend, who told her, “if I ever knew two people that need each other, it’s you and Greg Ladd.”
Ladd was in the process of building Cross Gate Gallery, an art gallery he had started out of his parents’ garage a few years prior. After making the connection that she had known Ladd’s wife, Laura, for years – Laura had gone to school with Phillips’ oldest son – Phillips gave him a call. She started working at the original Cross Gate location on High Street shortly thereafter. And the rest, as they say, is history.
“Mary was and has been the stability at Cross Gate,” Ladd said. “In the early days, I was just out of college and newly married – I was running around trying to get the business off the ground. Mary was the rock we all depended on.”
Today, after 40 years working for Cross Gate Gallery, which moved to Forest Avenue and Bell Court in 2000. the beloved local framing specialist is hanging up her hat – two years shy of her 90th birthday.
“These kids have kept me young,” said Phillips, 88, of her co-workers, several of whom she has worked alongside for decades.
Be that as it may, she has been like a mother to everyone at Cross Gate since she first started – clients and employees alike. From her familiar post at the Cross Gate framing table, where she has helped hundreds of clients frame treasured art and photographs, Phillips has quietly watched generations of Lexingtonians grow up – both in their family pictures and gallery visits. She has helped grandparents and grandchildren pick out frames, guiding their choices in her humble, subtle way, all the while nurturing her co-workers and clients with her welcoming smile and matronly demeanor.
“I used to borrow money from her for lunch when she first started,” Ladd said.
“He always paid me back,” Phillips added with a wink.
Phillips said she is looking forward to spending more time with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren – and no longer having to brave the weather on Saturday mornings to get to work. But saying good-bye to the business that has become a second home for the past four decades is certainly a bittersweet occasion.
“To me, it was the choice place to work,” she continued. “I just love them all so.”
Cross Gate Gallery will host a farewell retirement party for Mary Phillips on Tuesday, March 20, from 4-6 p.m.; friends and clients of Phillips and the gallery are invited to come give her a proper send-off.