By Susan Hinkle
That is right, our little town which is growing fast has always been known for being The Harbor of Hospitality and now added to that is: HAS it all – History, Arts, and Science – well, I could add another S and say we HASS it all and add SHOPPING – As when people come to the H.A.S. of any community, they also come to browse the Shoppe’s and take in the local sites and eateries.
Being a retail business owner, we will happily add anything we can to our inventory that you the customer suggest. It is one of the great benefits of being an independent owned business – your customers help you decide what to put on your shelves. Another great benefit is meeting all the wonderful people in this area – from the student to the farmer to the local lawyer, the shoe man, clothier, printer, and jeweler and let’s not forget our electric personnel – the ones who keep the current flowing on all our wonderful downtown events, which bring people into our Shoppe’s!
On the HAS subject, we are very fortunate that we do have the Museum of the Albemarle, a fantastic museum with lots of great displays and events on their summer schedule, never mind that porch! The Arts Of the Albemarle, which has a great art gallery and wonderful stage and event venue – their plays, music and classes are really great this summer. And then there is Port Discover, a terrific hands-on science lab for kids and adults –filled with interesting projects and interactive displays to capture and inspire the old and young to get their hands on and try to figure it out!
There is quite a lot for families to do when they come to visit our dynamite city - We just have to figure out how to get them here, and how to entice them to shop in our cute local shops and stay in our quaint downtown B&B’s. There are ideas brewing on how to get people to easily find the downtown, find the public parking lot, improve its appearance, and ways to lead them to the History, Arts, Science and Shopping of Elizabeth City Downtown. Local business owners and residents would like to work together to spruce up the downtown to help make it more attractive to visitors. We have to do this all while the construction is happening on Elizabeth Street, but there are people working to ensure that downtown businesses are affected as little as possible.
We have our beautiful waterfront to walk along – great park areas with benches and nice shady sitting areas; the Mariner’s Wharf Film Festival Free Movies on Tuesday nights, which will be replaced in August by the Concert Series “Music on the Green”. We have the Wine Tasting at The City Wine Cellar on the first Wednesday of each month – Every Wednesday night is Pint night at Coaster’s and there are many other restaurants/pubs that are always available for great meals and a refreshing drink. We, Page After Page Bookstore, have a writers’ group that meets the 2nd Tuesday of each month; Simply Devine Fabrics has sewing classes for new and experienced. Take a break for your senses and breathe in the beautiful fragrances at Waterlillies.
There is so much going on here – we are so lucky! My opinion is if we want to make our downtown a ‘destination’ we need to have more of the restaurants and Shoppes open on Sundays. I ask the local businesses to give Sundays a try – you might be surprised – I am. There are many people who come into the bookstore and ask what else is open for shopping and where they can eat – why they can’t even buy a soda – but guess what – we now sell soda and water everyday! That’s what we can do because we are independently owned.