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Bluetique clothing boutique located at the corner of Woodland Avenue and East Maxwell Street. Photo by Sarah Jane Sanders
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Chatham's on High located at the corner of Woodland Avenue and East High Street. Photo by Sarah Jane Sanders
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Commotion! Riding Apparel located at the corner of Kentucky Avenue and East Maxwell Street. Photo by Sarah Jane Sanders
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Wendi Foley describes her boutique Pink Spider as “a little bit country, a little bit rock ‘n roll.” Photo by Sarah Jane Sanders
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Pink Spider boutique. Photo by Sarah Jane Sanders
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Pink Spider boutique. Photo by Sarah Jane Sanders
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Pink Spider boutique. Photo by Sarah Jane Sanders
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High on Art, part cafè and part gallery shop, features the work of nearly 200 local artists. Photo by Sarah Jane Sanders
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Woodland Triangle area features more than a dozen locally owned businesses, including Missy’s Pies, which has been cranking out Lexington’s favorite pies since 1989. Photo by Sarah Jane Sanders
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Miller Fine Art and Framing, a framing service that also features specialty items handmade from reclaimed wood. Photo by Sarah Jane Sanders
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Miller Fine Art and Framing. Photo by Sarah Jane Sanders
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The Press Juice and Health Bar offers natural and fresh cold press juice and cleanses. Photo by Sarah Jane Sanders
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Shop Local KY sells vintage inspired Kentucky apparel and licensed University of Kentucky gear. Photo by Sarah Jane Sanders
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Primarily an e-commerce business specializing in whimsical Kentucky-themed gear, Shop Local Kentucky recently opened a storefront in Woodland Triangle. Photo by Sarah Jane Sanders
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Source on High is a Woodland Triangle-area wellness center offering yoga classes, massage, flotation tanks and other health and wellness services. Photo by Sarah Jane Sanders
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Carrying contemporary and vintage-inspired home furnishings and accessories from a variety of designers – including products made by local craftsmen – Decorator Warehouse opened in 2012. Photo by Sarah Jane Sanders
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The eclectic shop Fox House Vintage features vintage, vintage-inspired and locally made clothing, as well as vintage home decor, unique handmade jewelry lines, artwork and more. Photo by Sarah Jane Sanders
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Fox House Vintage owner Lauralee Crain has increasingly been adding vintage replica lines and other unique artisan items to the shop’s inventory in recent months and recently started a Lexington-focused fashion blog on the shop’s website. Photo by Sarah Jane Sanders
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Fox House Vintage. Photo by Sarah Jane Sanders
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Fox House Vintage. Photo by Sarah Jane Sanders
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Fox House Vintage. Photo by Sarah Jane Sanders
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The area’s original resident boutique, The Black Market, features shoes, clothing, jewelry and other accessories, all handpicked by owner Melanie Williams with a special focus on small, affordable lines. Photo by Sarah Jane Sanders
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The Black Market. Photo by Sarah Jane Sanders
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The Black Market. Photo by Sarah Jane Sanders
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Hairdresser Alex McClanahan opened the High Street salon Hair Razors 16 years ago. Photo by Zoya Tereshkova
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Black Swan Books owner Michael Courtney has been operating his used and rare bookstore in the Woodland Triangle for more than three decades. Photo by Zoya Tereshkova
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In addition to natural fiber yarns and other knitting tools, Magpie Yarn offers a friendly and supportive knitting community. Photo by Zoya Tereshkova
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Opened by Ann-Michael McCalister Rawlings (pictured on the left), Calypso Boutique is celebrating 10 years of business this year. Photo by Sarah Jane Sanders
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Calypso Boutique features trendy women’s clothing and accessories. Photo by Sarah Jane Sanders
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Calypso Boutique. Photo by Sarah Jane Sanders
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In addition to consignment riding clothes, Commotion! Riding Apparel features riding accessories, boots and equestirian gifts. Photo by Sarah Jane Sanders
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Commotion! Riding Apparel. Photo by Sarah Jane Sanders
Distinct Districts is a series highlighting some of our favorite local corridors — thoroughfares ripe with clusters of unique businesses, interesting architecture or use of space and other factors that work in tandem to make Lexington a wonderful place to live, shop, work and play.
Woodland Triangle might be small – one can leisurely walk the area adjacent to Woodland Park and bordered by Woodland Avenue, East High and East Maxwell streets in less than five minutes – but its business community is vibrant, diverse and most importantly, truly unique.
“We have a nice mix of businesses and business owners’ personalities, and we cater to a wide range of ages, from college kids to their grandmas,” said Wendi Foley, who opened the women’s clothing and accessories boutique Pink Spider at 507 E. High St. in 2011. Her shop has been described as “a little bit country, a little bit rock ’n roll.”
Indeed, the pedestrian-friendly retail district, shaped like a slice of pie, is home to several locally owned boutiques catering to women’s fashion, including the college-friendly Bluetique, the vintage clothing and accessory shop Fox House Vintage, the popular boutique Calypso (which recently celebrated its 10-year anniversary), and one of the area’s longest-running anchors, The Black Market, which opened in 1989 and offers a variety of clothing, jewelry, shoes and accessories. More than just a ladies’ shopping district, however, the Woodland Triangle area is also home to two art galleries, two hair salons, a knitting shop, an alteration shop, a riding apparel consignment store, two wellness studios, a juice bar and a shop specializing in Kentucky-themed apparel.
Foley said that similar businesses do well in close proximity to each other, because each brings something different to the table.
“Every boutique has its distinct flavor,” she said. “We don’t compete – we complement each other.”
High on Art and Coffee, located at 517 E. High St., combines the concepts of art gallery and coffee house. The husband-and-wife duo Ellie and Tim Harman opened the business two years ago, after growing tired of working in a corporate world.
“He got aggravated with his job, and we both decided it was time to pursue our dream,” said Ellie Harman, who’s been an artist her entire life. High on Art represents 182 artists, the majority of whom are from Kentucky. The most expensive wall art is $350, and jewelry pieces start as low as $1.
“We are budget friendly,” Harman said. “We have college students who buy their first piece of art for their first apartment they rent, and we want them to be able to afford it.”
Another business that is relatively new to the area – which several businesses have called home for a decade or longer – is Decorator Warehouse, which opened in August of 2012 on the corner of East Maxwell and High streets. Owner Natalie Avant had two careers, one as a police officer and the other as an elementary school math teacher, before deciding to pursue her dream of owning a home décor gallery.
“I grew up around beautiful home décor pieces,” she said. “My aunt had a shop in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and I loved hanging out there as a kid.”
Avant remembers driving all over Lexington for days looking for the perfect location for her new endeavor.
“Nothing felt right, but when I saw this building, I knew immediately that was it,” she said, referring to the two-story red building that used to house an ice cream factory and then Miller Fine Art Gallery and Last Genuine Leather Co.
She found the place in the spring of that year and was planning to open by November, before her new neighbors convinced her that she needed to be open by August’s Woodland Art Fair, the main event of the year for the Triangle.
“It was insane, but we did it, and we’ve been open since that fair,” she said.
Avant added that other business owners are part of the reason why she loves her new occupation so much.
“The people are great,” she said. “It’s very communal. Everyone has their own style, but we all are open to accept each other.”
Pat Bardo has had her own Bardo Art Gallery for a year and a half, but she’s been in the area longer than that. She and her husband bought a building at 507 East High St. in 2004 after she retired as a social worker. She started
her Outside the Box boutique, operating it for five years until she made another attempt to retire for good. It didn’t last though, and she came back after a few years and began her new career running an art gallery.
“I love what I do, and I love the community here,” she said.
Tandy Flynn, an independent image consultant in Lexington, said she comes here to shop because she’s “not a mall shopper.”
“I like boutiques, and here there are a number of them almost side to side,” she said, referring to Pink Spider, Calypso and Black Market.
Susan Brown, a librarian at Transylvania University, said she can spend an entire Saturday at the Triangle.
“I would knit and chat with my friends at Magpie Yarn. Then we would eat, browse at the bookstores and eat at Chatham’s,” she said.
Ty Henry, 8, who lives in the area, said he bikes to High on Art and Coffee at least twice a week to get ice cream and candy, and on weekends he comes here with his mom.
“This neighborhood is very accommodating, and there’s something for everybody here,” said Henry’s mom, Laura Myers.
Alex McClanahan, who has owned the High Street salon Hair Razors for 16 years, said personal connection with customers is what makes the area unique.
“I have kids who had their first haircuts with me and now they’re college students. I have a few guys that started with me when they were UK students, and now they are lawyers and engineers and still come here,” she said. “It’s magical to me.”
Another unique feature of the area, McClanahan said, is its rich history.
“Every building has so much personality, and there’s history at every step,” she said.
But perhaps the best local business owner to weigh in on what the Triangle used to be like is Michael Courtney – his bookstore Black Swan Books has been here for over three decades, and he remembers what the area was like when he was as an elementary school student back in the 1950s.
“I remember going to the coin shop at the corner of East Maxwell and Woodland,” he said. “Everyone in the ‘50s was collecting coins, but I went there primarily for used books.”
On weekends, Courtney’s parents took him to the Hugh’s Ice Cream Factory, which was located in the building on the corner of Woodland where Decorator Warehouse is located now.
“I don’t remember flavors, but it was ice cream on a stick,” said Courtney.
Courtney said he has heard many stories over the years from customers about the area’s past.
“One customer told me that when he was a boy in the 1920s, the fire station across from Black Swan still had a watchtower and horse-drawn fire engines,” he said. “He came to the fire station, and firemen let him walk the horses from here all the way to Main Street.”
Courtney said that Woodland Triangle was Lexington’s very first business suburb.
“Back in the days, the interurban made a loop a block away to go back to downtown. There were no more stores farther than that.”
Courtney’s bookstore is located in a building that was originally a plumbing shop with a family residence in the back and apartments upstairs.
“That’s why there are all those beautiful fireplaces in my store,” Courtney said.
Pratt said that the Triangle is not the same nowadays, due to a higher turnover in tenants, but Courtney said that while it’s true, the new businesses still contribute a lot to the area’s livelihood.
“The boutiques are very popular and bring in a lot of people. The T-shirt place also attracts new customers to the area,” said Courtney, referring to Shop Local Kentucky, a business specializing in Kentucky-themed clothing that opened a storefront on the corner of Woodland Avenue and High Street last year. “The Triangle is the most vibrant it’s ever been in many years.”
Barbara Pollitt, who has managed Missy’s Pies for a decade, said that change in the area is inevitable.
“It’s sad when businesses close down but exciting when the new ones move in,” she said. “When Ramsey’s restaurant decided to relocate, it seemed that no one would be able to fill its shoes. But now, the Chatham’s is everyone’s favorite and its patio is the best in town.”
Pollitt said that older businesses greet the newcomers with open arms.
“We are a very friendly community,” she said. “We watch for each other, we send each other business, and we help each other to succeed.”