The following article appeared in the Asheville Citizen-Times August 7, 2015
Many downtown businesses sport the “Buy Local” signs in recent years, but Asheville’s support for independent stores goes back at least 100 years.
“The Family Store: A History of the Jewish Businesses of Downtown Asheville, 1880-1990,” has five exhibit panels in locations across downtown Asheville, mostly in commercial business windows. One permanent panel is mounted on Patton Avenue.
Jan Schochet and Sharon Fahrer first produced this oral history and exhibit in 2005, explaining the Jewish roots of many downtown Asheville retail businesses.
“This is an invisible history, one not known by newcomers to the area but one dearly loved by many longtime locals and natives who shopped these stores,” said Schochet, whose family owned and operated shops on Patton Avenue.
Schochet and Fahrer collected around 70 hours of interviews with store owners and children of store owners.
They found more than 450 Jewish owned retail stores in the 110-year period around the core of downtown—Pack Square, Biltmore, Broadway, Lexington, Patton and Haywood Street.
Schochet is in town, looking for more storefronts to host panels through November. She will give a talk, “The Forgotten History of The Family Store,” at 6 p.m. Aug. 27 at Lord Auditorium in Pack Library.
Exhibit panels are currently on display at Gentleman’s Gallery, 66 Haywood St; Tops for Shoes, 27 N. Lexington Ave; Earth Guild, 33 Haywood St; the Asheville Downtown Association, 29 Haywood St.
One permanent outdoor panel can be seen at the former site of The Man Store, 22 Patton Ave, the corner of South Lexington and Patton avenues.
The Family Store exhibit for 2015 is organized and presented by Insider Carolina, helping people experience and enjoy the Carolinas through historic and cultural context and cutting edge food and activities. www.InsiderCarolina.com. For more information, call 828-301-7981.