“City jewelry store opens with historical perspective”

City jewelry store opens with historical perspective

Posted: 05 Feb 2011 08:10 PM PST

Photo: N/A, License: N/A, Created: 2011:02:04 23:52:54

JAMIE PESOTINE/Staff Photographer A ribbon cutting was held Saturday for the new Inspired by Amber Jewelry Salon located inside of Remember When at 21 W. Broad St. in Hazleton. The event showcased a new line of handcrafted jewelry themed "Thoughts of Love." Participating in the ceremony are, from left, Alexandra Ettinger, state Rep. Tarah Toohil, R-116, Roseann Ettinger, Amber Ettinger and Sabrina Ettinger.

When Roseann Ettinger was growing up, she played with the fringe on the bottom of the sofas and beaded bags in her grandmother's house.

"I used to rub my arm on those. Dad used to call me a gypsy. I would clean out everybody's jewelry box," Ettinger said.

On Saturday, shoppers had a chance to admire her jewelry as she held a grand opening in her store at 23 W. Broad St. in Hazleton.

The jewelry store adjoins Remember When vintage clothing shop at 21 W. Broad St. that she has run in the building she bought in 1997.

When fire struck the building on Dec. 30, 2008, Ettinger could have closed the smoke-damaged store and just sold clothing and jewelry online, but she decided to reopen.

"I wasn't ready to quit," she said. "I'm hoping and praying for downtown. I'm not giving up."

The store is part of her family's history. She raised her son, Clint, and daughters, Amber, Alexandra and Sabrina, while standing behind the antique, wooden cash register.

Likewise, the store is part of Hazleton's history.

Built in the 1860s and expanded in the following decade, the building held Isaac Honing and Sons, a men's clothing store. She has Honing's ledgers from 1879 to 1902 but said the store remained in business to the World War II era when it became Frumkin Brothers, a men's store run by the family who sold her the building.

The fire gave Ettinger an opportunity to restore the building as Honing's customers knew it.

Her husband pulled down the drop ceiling that smelled like smoke and exposed the decorative, tin ceiling from yesteryear. Behind wooden shelves, they found pocket doors between the two stores.

Before the grand opening, they removed a green wall that covered a wall of white tin on which flowers and torches stand out in relief. Ettinger painted them copper to contrast with the white background.

A commerce journal in which she found a listing of Hazleton businesses from 1896 said a jewelry store used to be in the room with the tin wall. Ettinger judged it to be a perfect place for selling the jewelry that she and Amber make.

On Saturday, they unveiled their Valentine's Day line of jewelry, inspired by an old postcard of lovers sitting together. They framed the postcard and used the colors in it for their jewelry, which they've been fashioning since Christmas.

A few times each year, they plan to offer a new collection for holidays like Mother's Day and Christmas.

Both the jewelry and vintage clothing stores will be open Wednesdays through Saturdays from noon to 3 p.m. through the winter. Hours may expand in the summer.

Shoppers can browse through the merchandise but also admire the wooden mannequins, vases and photos from the Honing store that Ettinger saved. The mannequins have painted faces and shirt fronts, and now wear bowler hats and straw boaters on the men's side of the store and hats from the flapper era on the shelves above women's wear.

Ettinger put ferns in the urns that she displays along with antique luggage and plaques from suppliers such as David Marks and Sons, the New York wholesaler that shipped to Honing. She is surprised by the volume of Honing's business. A journal entry, checked on a whim, indicated they bought $1,109.97 in merchandise on March 17, 1890.

"I like to preserve. I'm a historian. To me, it is a tribute to what Hazleton was," Ettinger said. "When I'm here, I don't think about what's on our streets. It's like I come back to another time, a better time."

kjackson@standardspeaker.com

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