In 1973, a ribbon cutting was held at 146 High Street in downtown Hazard, Kentucky, celebrating the grand opening of Dawahare’s department store and Hoover’s Furniture. The storefront saw a lot of area families in and out over the next 20 years, but in the 1990s, the store closed for good. The building fell in and out of use – at one point it even housed the Hazard Herald, the local newspaper, until they too moved out of the 40,000 square foot space.
All the while, local residents Rhonda Brewer and Charla Napier were gaining experience as business women and community leaders. In 2012, they began to look at locations to open a consignment store.
“The idea hatched out of the need to downsize our own family’s stuff, and wanting to provide that service and income to others,” Rhonda said.
With Rhonda’s mother having worked at the Dawahare’s store in the ‘80s, and having good memories shopping there over the years, they really wanted to rent the former Dawahare’s space. But for one reason or another, at the time, it didn’t work out. They ended up opening The Shoppes on North Main, one street over.
Over time, as they built a loyal customer base, they also added more and more new items to meet the demand of their customers. Soon, they could no longer deny the need for more room.
They once again set their sights on the old Dawahare’s building —except now, they were in the market to buy it. Rhonda and Charla are no strangers to retail or business operations. Rhonda worked in sales for Pepsi for more than 20 years and Charla is the Chief Operating Officer for Primary Care Centers of Eastern Kentucky. Working with Bailey Richards, Hazard’s Downtown Development Coordinator, and Les Roll of the Mountain Association, this time, they made it happen.
Everything went through in late 2023 and since then they diligently worked on completely remodeling the interior of the bottom floor and the exterior.
In early May 2024, they held the grand opening of the Copper Lantern, named after the locally crafted lanterns that adorn the entry way. This location houses their boutique items – everything from baby to maternity to home décor. The Shoppes on North Main will remain consignment. In total, the two locations will employ 10-12 people.
“It went from a building that had just Probation and Parole in one office, to now over half of the building being occupied,” Bailey Richards said.
“This is a significant bump in our downtown atmosphere,” Les Roll said, “With such great visibility from the road, people will be able to see activity here and that is huge for reactivating downtown.”
Bailey, who coordinates the Downtown Hazard Business Association as a part of her role, described the downtown progress over the years: “In total, we’ve had 70 new businesses open downtown within 5 years and 62 of those 70 are still open. Nationally, after 5 years, 50% of new businesses close. We’re way below that primarily because the community rallies around our small businesses and small businesses rally after each other to help each other grow and expand. They understand that rising tides raise all boats. They are creating the rising tides.”
Now that the bottom floor is open, Rhonda and Charla are shifting their attention to getting their online site up and running in the coming weeks, and remodeling the second floor space. Redbud Financial Alternatives is also now one of their tenants in the building.
Mountain Association is proud to have provided financing for the building and improvements and business support for Charla and Rhonda to train with an accountant on their business expansion.
Learn more about how we support Hazard’s revitalization here.
