For the first time in decades, Charleston's holiday season is going on without the Fountain Hobby Center.
The landmark business on Charleston's West Side quietly closed in recent weeks.
"It was just a combination of the family getting older, the age of the building and the timing being right," said Cathy Callihan, whose family has owned the store since it opened.
No official announcement of Fountain Hobby's closure was made when it closed this fall. The outside of the store at 200 Washington St. West has no signs or fliers indicating its closure, either.
Callihan said the lack of fanfare regarding Fountain Hobby's end is because the family is still clearing out inventory and deciding what the future of the building should be. She said that will be determined early next year.
The store's operating hours and staff gradually grew smaller over the past couple of years. Callihan said the store would have had to overhaul its inventory if it were to continue operations.
"Hobbies and crafts have changed," Callihan said. "Every generation is different and we didn't want to reinvent ourselves again."
Ric Cavender, of Charleston Main Streets, an economic and community development organization, said Fountain Hobby has provided a great example to follow for the local businesses that have recently opened in the Elk City Historic District.
"It's a business that has served Charleston for decades," said Cavender. "It was a cornerstone for the West Side. They set a high bar for the other businesses in the area to show how hard work and creativity can succeed."
Fountain Hobby has been in business at its Washington Street West location since the early 1960s, selling supplies for a variety of hobbies and crafts. Many of its items were used as part of school projects for Charleston-area students.
"Back in the day, you would have people waiting outside in line to shop," Callihan said. "And we had everything. We had the newest G.I. Joe toys, we had lava lamps, we even had a card shop."
In 2013, Fountain Hobby's owners wanted to take down and repair the store's longstanding neon sign at the corner of West Washington Street and Bigley Avenue. The sign was a part of the original Fountain Hobby, a soda shop in North Charleston, which opened in 1947.
City zoning laws did not allow for removing and reinstalling signs not considered up to current standards, but Fountain Hobby's request received widespread support from Charleston Mayor Danny Jones and others. West Side Main Street, a division of Charleston Main Streets, provided a $1,000 grant for the project.
The renovated sign was installed in May 2014, and Charleston held a ceremony for the occasion.
Dan Vriendt, Charleston's city planning director, said Tuesday that the sign can remain even if the business itself is gone because the sign is considered historical and part of the building itself.
"People have a large, nostalgic interest in the sign," Cavender said. "It's a historic part of the West Side."
Reach Max Garland at max.garland@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4886 or follow
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