This is our 50th year in business in Kennett Square. As I always say, “It isn’t just about cars, trucks, engines and their challenges, it’s all about my customers in need and my ability to help them and their families”. Being able to serve you, meet you and be part of your life as you are mine, is why I do what I do. I don't claim to be the best or the smartest but I do promise to be honest, caring, fair and provide a solution even if I need help. I believe we should all do what we can to help those in our community so I started the Holiday Food Blitz in 2008, which benefits the Kennett Area Community Service. Then the Lucky Dog Food Blitz in 2010 in the honor of my beloved “Lucky Dog” to benefit local pets and Faithful Friends. I also work with the Kennett Senior Center and volunteer with the Mushroom Festival and it's car show.
I invite everyone to stop in, if only for a meet and greet! Many have driven by for years and wondered what we are about. It really is all about you, as our motto says.... “We are Just Here to Help!” STOP IN!
My best to all in Kennett. Love ya, Bob Blittersdorf Blitz Automotive GO SOUL!
I want to take this opportunity to thank ALL of my friends for their generous help through the years. Without them and their support Blitz would not be what it is today, nor would it have been as meaningful a journey. “We Are Just Here to Help!”
Kennett Square Life
Kennett Square Life Summer 2020
Letter from the Editor:
In this issue of Kennett Square Life, we’ll explore the life and inspirations of a talented local artist, introduce you to a dedicated public servant hoping to make the world a better place, spotlight a local community garden, and highlight one local business that is celebrating 50 years in 2020. We’ll talk to the new owners of a venerable Kennett Square business that is about to start a new chapter. We’ll also feature music in the home of a maestro, as Michael Hall is the subject of the photo essay.
And we are happier than normal to bring these stories to you.
For awhile, it looked like this issue of Kennett Square Life might be delayed as the area recovers from the coronavirus pandemic and its various impacts. As it turns out, this issue of Kennett Square Life is actually arriving a little earlier than we originally planned. In fact, it has probably been more than a decade since the spring/summer issue of Kennett Square Life has arrived this early.
It’s the perfect time of the year to write about the Anson B. Nixon Community Garden. This issue also features a story about talented local artist Frances Roosevelt, and the piece is written by her own daughter, Caroline.
We always like to write about people making a difference in the community. We profile Rosa Moore, a woman who cares about others and wants to make the world a better place. From her stint in the Peace Corps to working with La Comunidad Hispana to becoming a registered nurse, the chosen paths that this new Kennett Square Borough Council member takes are ones that lead to helping her community.
Bob Blittersdorf is well known in Kennett Square. This year, his business, Blitz Automotive is celebrating 50 years, and we took the opportunity to talk to him about his life’s work and about the town he loves so much.
We also look at how Macaluso Rare & Fine Books is starting a new chapter under the ownership of John and Stefanie Lynn. The new chapter includes a new name, The Kennett Bookhouse.
The Q & A is with Lynell Pastormerlo, owner of Altruist Foods.
In the photo essay, we enjoy music in the home of the maestro, Michael Hall, the conductor of the Kennett Symphony.
We’re glad to share this issue of Kennett Square Life with you, and we wish you all good health and good cheer until we deliver the next issue of the magazine in the fall of 2020.
Sincerely,
Steve Hoffman, Editor
Cover photo: Jie Deng
Cover Design: Tricia Hoadley
|Kennett Square Life Spotlight|
All photos by Chris Barber unless otherwise noted Owner-operator Bob Blittersdorf stands behind the counter at his shop.
This 1968 Camaro was built by Blittersdorf with his brother, Ron, and Bruce Ginn. It ran the Super Pro Best at 9:41.
Submitted photos
This 1956 Chevy ran under the national record for two years and was built by Blittersdorf.
Blitz Automotive celebrates 50 years in Kennett Square
The heart and mind of a musician drives this fixer of cars
WBy Chris Barber Contributing Writer
orking on and repairing cars is more than a job for Bob Blittersdorf. It’s his passion, and he’s been following that passion for the past 50 years.
The sign on the side of his shop at the intersection of East State and Walnut streets in Kennett Square says it all: “Blitz Automotive, celebrating 50 years, 2/7/70.”
Blittersdorf, 72, is a Kennett Square native and graduate of Kennett High School. His love of cars and their operation has been propelling his life since shortly after he finished high school. Perhaps even earlier.
The shop he owns and runs has not always been in the same place. There have been a couple of moves through the years. He hasn’t traveled far, however, and through it all Blittersdorf has carried out his job in the heart of the borough. That’s the way he likes it.
The shop’s earliest years were at 111 West
State Street. That’s where Philter coffee house is now. He and his partner, Dave Aloisio, moved into that building in 1970 after Schmaltz’s department store moved out.
At that time, he said, he had $200 and a little toolbox.
It was a good beginning for him, and he had customers arriving thanks to his advertising in the Kennett News and Advertiser newspaper and good word-of-mouth around the community.
The space at 111 West State Street was a little cramped.
“The cars couldn’t come in from State Street. They had to enter from behind, and we could only hold two or three cars,” Blittersdorf explained.
Seeking more room for his growing business, he later moved his operation to Church Alley into the ground floor of what was then Vorhee’s Hardware Store. This location was adjacent to what is today the Kennett Library parking lot.
Then, in 1984, he packed up and moved east to his current location, where drivers coming
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in from Miller’s Hill are greeted by his anniversary sign and company logo.
Early on, Blittersdorf knew working on cars was his passion. Even in high school, he said, he had a passion for drag racing.
Following his graduation, he attended Automotive Training Center in Philadelphia at 17th and Lehigh Avenue.
Every day for several years, he made the drive from Kennett Square to Philadelphia. Occasionally, he said, he was so tired he almost fell asleep in class.
Nonetheless, he emerged with a stack of proficiency certificates so deep and numerous he could almost shuffle them like a deck of cards.
He knew the guts of an automobile like the back of his hand. He said he’s proud of his skills, but he declined a compliment based on the excellence denoted on the proficiency certificates.
“You can’t know it all,” he said. “Nobody can know it all.”
How he runs Blitz Automotive reflects Blittersdorf’s belief in handson operation.
He concedes that computer technology is necessary for accessing information and communication, but in many cases he still relies on basic, hard copy record-keeping of classic custom jobs work. For every customer, he creates a manila file folder with their name on it. Every piece of paper associated with their job is placed in the folder.
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This works very well, he said, for him and the car owner.
He says it keeps him familiar with the folks he does work for and is a record of what has been done for the vehicle. And if the car owner wants to sell the vehicle, he has the complete hard copy to pass on to the next owner.
Bob Blittersdorf stands among the machines and tools in his shop.
Blittersdorf runs the business with Josh Sciarra. It’s just the two of them. Blittersdorf said that’s enough staff because he doesn’t want to get backed up with a lot of orders sitting around waiting to be done.
As for the shop, the appearance is daunting.
Almost every inch is covered with machines, tools and equipment.
Repairs to a vehicle that the layperson would ask, “How can this or that be done?” are often handled by the shop’s devices.
When Blittersdorf was asked how he and his assistant hoist all those heavy mechanisms within cars and the tools they need to repair them, he demonstrated his supply of lifts
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Bob Blittersdorf says he can tell rather fast what’s wrong with the motor of a car.
Bob Blittersdorf says it’s convenient for him and Josh to work on two or three vehicles at a time.
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and levers he has collected that hook up to do some of the tough lifting and turning work.
Some of those other tools can grind; some can smooth; some can push parts into place; some even handle their tasks by spewing lightweight oil to calm the friction.
Outside of the daily work of serving customers, Blittersdorf’s other activities form a neat complement to his love of cars and their operation.
He has for years overseen the car show at the Kennett Square Mushroom Festival, and he promotes the event by tagging a special car or car owner (or both) on the invitation card. He said he has made the car show attractive to its audience and participants because he knows what classic car owners want to see and how they like it laid out.
He also goes to car shows and enjoys the company of those who share his passion.
What drives Blittersdorf and his passion for his life and work?
Those who know him well are aware that he’s more that a car repair guy.
He is an accomplished musician who earned a load of music letters during his high school career. He was a
member of the chorus, the band and the orchestra and held elective leadership posts in those organizations. During his late adolescence he played with the Kennett Symphony Orchestra as well.
To this day he has the heart and mind of a musician, and he even has an old player piano against the wall at the office.
“It still plays if you are willing to pump the pedal,” he said. Likewise, the pleasure he derives from his work is like the pleasure a musician gets from a fine concert and the appreciation he gives to his audience.
He was asked what the best job, the greatest thrill or the best vehicle warms his heart the most. Was it some elegant antique limousine or a Steve McQueen “Bullitt” Mustang he restored?
No, he said.
He told the story of a woman in the community who brought in her 1967 Mustang that had been in storage. It still had a stable body, but it looked old and weary.
He worked on it and said when he was finished, it looked like it just came out of the showroom.
When the woman came to pick it up, she was so delighted she shed tears of joy.
That’s the kind of thing that drives him, he said.
Conversely, when he was asked if there were any
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moments of trouble, dismay or trouble, he said, “Not really. It’s life.”
Blittersdorf said every time he uses his skills to enhance or fix a vehicle and he sees the delight in the owner’s eyes, that is what makes his world.
“Since the late 1960s, I have machined and built thousands of engines. The greatest satisfaction is seeing all these mere parts come to life and see it perform in a classic or race car,” he said.
He has many people he wants to thank, including teachers and his parents. “I feel I owe these people my respect to carry on their honor as they live in us always,” he said. “We are who we are because of the people in our lives.”
Blittersdorf has a small room in his shop in which he has placed pictures and memorabilia of people who have taught him important lessons and enhanced his life. He listed some of them:
“I thank my parents—the best anyone could have,” he said. “They pushed me and guided me and supported me in my life and my interests. It made me realize I could accomplish more than I thought possible.
“Bill Blittersdorf gave me my first job and taught me all he could. I’m very grateful to have met him. My piano teacher, a professor at West Chester University, Dr. Antonowich, helped me learn and be the best I could be. John Buschiazzo, a teacher at ATC and owner of a shop in Toughkenamon, was a great friend and inspiration. Unfortunately, he passed at the age of 33.”
Most of all, Blittersdorf said, he is grateful to his wife and his beloved hometown.
“I also thank my wife, Charlene of almost 30 years for supporting me,” he said. “My best as well to all of Kennett Square for the support and memories.”
What lies in the future of Bitz Automotive?
Blittersdorf said he has pretty much what he wants right now, and he has no plans of retiring or leaving.
Striving world
All photos provided by Rosa G. Moore Rosa G. Moore, a recent Kennett Square Borough Council member, has a background that includes experience in the Peace Corps, working for non-profits and as a registered nurse.
Striving to make the world a better place
Newly elected Moore has desire, life experience to make a difference
SBy Natalie Smith Staff Writer
imply put, Rosa G. Moore is a woman who cares about others and wants to make the world a better place. But beyond that sentiment, Moore’s compassion is manifested in action.
From her stint in the Peace Corps to working with La Comunidad Hispana to becoming a registered nurse, the chosen paths that this new Kennett Square Borough Council member takes are ones that lead to helping her community.
“They had originally approached my husband [Chris Moore] about running [for borough council],” Moore recalled, “but he was too busy. But the idea was planted in my head.” About two years later, when the opportunity presented itself, she believed the time was right for her to pursue the position. “I thought I could reasonably fit it into my life,” she said with a laugh.
Moore, who was sworn in January and is serving a four-year term, was one of three elected to the seven-member council, and was named its vice president. She sits on the Personnel and Revolving Loan Fund committees. “I find committee work very familiar and comfortable but the borough
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Rosa G. Moore was among three Kennett Square Borough Council members sworn in in January by Mayor Matt Fetick. Standing at her side is her husband Chris Moore.
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council meetings are an arena where I’m out of my comfort zone,” Moore admitted, “so I’m learning where to insert myself and speak up.”
Currently a nurse at Upland Country Day School, which her son and daughter attend, an inspiration for Moore’s political aspirations is her volunteer work with the Chester County Fund for Women and Girls, an advocacy and philanthropy group on whose board she sits.
“About in the last year-and-a-half since my tenure with the Fund, we started talking about increasing its work and advocacy. It had already started GirlGov [a program in which high school girls learn about civics and the workings of government], which I always thought was a really wonderful program because if you’re going to get women into more positions of political power, we might as well start with high school girls.
“Then we started talking about, what else can the Fund do in terms of advocacy? It kind of just sparked a power in me to think about what could I personally be doing in my own community. Prior to joining the CCFWG board. I had never really thought of myself as a leader in that way, but the experience of being on the board taught me the value that I can bring to the table and the value that my voice brings, my experiences bring and how that can shape an environment or a culture. I realized that running for borough council would be one way to continue to do that, since I had I learned that from being on the board.”
Moore’s early experiences started her on the road to human service. In 1986, when the thenRosa Garza was 6, she, her parents and three younger sisters emigrated to the U.S. from the Philippines. They moved to Roanoke, Va. because their sponsoring aunt lived there. “My parents still live in Roanoke,” she said.
Moore eventually went to Wellesley College, where she earned her B.A. in anthropology and Spanish, and two years later, she joined the Peace Corps, serving in the Dominican Republic.
“My official role was as an economic development volunteer, so I taught small business skills such as basic bookkeeping, marketing and strategy.
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Rosa Moore at a health education workshop she gave at Kaolin mushroom farm during her time at La Comunidad Hispana.
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I also worked with USAID [United States Agency for International Development] to develop a regional tourism plan highlighting Dominican crafts and culture.
“One outcome of that was my community’s first Chamber of Commerce. In between, I did what a lot of Peace Corps volunteers do: taught English and health education classes, held summer camps for the kids, and spent a lot of time with the community’s housewives and elders sharing stories and the day’s gossip.”
Following her two-year service, Moore worked at La Comunidad Hispana as a youth health advocate. It was during her time there when she decided to pursue a different kind of helping.
“I decided to become a nurse as a
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Moore spent her Peace Corps volunteer years in the Dominican Republic. Moore (right) is helping her neighbor and friend Alejandra create a budget for her small business making and selling jewelry.
Rosa G. Moore
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result of Joan Holliday and Peggy Harris, two nurses who were hugely influential when I worked at La Comunidad Hispana right after my Peace Corps service. I loved the combination of care and science in the job and thought it would be a career with many interesting opportunities over time.” Moore later worked as development director for The Garage Community and Youth Center and eventually got a nursing degree from West Chester University. She worked at Christiana Care’s emergency department in Newark, Del. before the job at her children’s school became available.
“My patients are really cute,” Moore said, laughing, of her charges at Upland Country Day School.
Moore’s political, volunteer and work experiences have underscored to her the importance of how she wants son Graham, 8, and daughter Penelope, 3, to view and behave in the world, and how she wants the world to view and behave toward them.
“Honestly a big, big motivation for running and also for
being on the CCFWG board is to have a different kind of world for my son and daughter.
“What do I want for my daughter as she is a woman of color? What can I do to a make the world more of a place for both of them but also be an example as to how women can move and be in the world? That’s a big one.”
As for her son, “I want him to look at women as individuals first. I want him to see them for the qualities they bring, rather than the fact they’re females.”
In light of the #MeToo movement, Moore also wants her children to understand that “no means no,” and when Penny says no “she can expect someone to stop immediately. When someone says no to [Graham], he also needs to stop what he’s doing.”
“I want them both to move in a world where both of their voices have equal power or equal potential power, but they have to use them.”
Contact Natalie Smith at natalie@DoubleSMedia.com
When John and Stefanie Lynn purchased Macaluso Rare & Fine Books last year, they were handed the keys to a part of Kennett Square history. With new ideas and now a new name, The Kennett Bookhouse is beginning a new chapter
Turning the Page
By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer
Simply told, the story of how an old bookshop came to find its new life in Kennett Square this past year is the tale of what happens when the power of history, tradition and legacy meet with ambition and a desire to nudge that legacy even more forward into the future.
Throughout his 85 years, Thomas Peter Macaluso planted his life’s work in two different arenas, each of whom are connected by the study and appreciation of literature. For 37 years, he taught English at Monmouth College in New Jersey, the Ohio State University and at Delaware County Community College. Overlapped with his years in the classroom, he served as the proprietor of Macaluso Rare & Fine Books for 40 years, located at the corner of South Union and Cypress Streets in Kennett Square. It was a six-room treasure trove of data, stories, authors and information, where thousands of rare books, maps and prints were displayed.
When Macaluso died on March 15, 2018, the volumes of his inventory remained in place, as did the oval sign on the book shop’s front porch. For the next year, the store continued to be run by Laurie Watkins, a friend of
All photos by Richard L. Gaw unless otherwise noted John and Stefanie Lynn of The Kennett Bookhouse.
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Macaluso and his wife, Brenda. Several months after Macaluso’s passing, Kennett resident John Lynn stopped into the store, in the hopes that he would be able to stumble into a rare find.
“I asked Laurie if she was the new owner,” John said. “She told me, ‘No, I’m not, but we’re looking for one. Are you interested? I said, ‘Maybe.’”
Immediately, John went home to discuss the idea with his wife, Stefanie. It could be a perfect next chapter for them, he suggested. Stefanie would be able to retire from her finance role for a global manufacturing company, and John could begin to transition to retirement from his corporate work and join his wife full time.
“I had been considering the idea of doing something different, so when John told me about the business, I didn’t even need him to finish what he was telling me,” Stefanie said. “I knew exactly where his idea was going, and that we would move forward with this.
“We had talked about concepts of running a small business, so the idea of owning a bookstore wasn’t that far removed from what I was picturing for us in the future.”
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the
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Together, the Lynns purchased Macaluso Rare & Fine Books in April 2019. Among their first decisions as new business owners was that the book shop – and the oval sign that bears its name – would initially remain the same.
At first, the Lynns operated the book shop in the original configuration that Macaluso had created but shut the business down in June. For the next five months – with the help of contractors – the Lynns transformed the store, with renovations that included taking down the ceiling in the front room, changing light fixtures, replacing flooring, repairing staircases, upgrading wiring in all of the rooms and adding some personal touches such as vintage furniture and area rugs.
By late fall, the sweat equity had paid off, and Macaluso’s re-opened to the public during the first week of November. In exchange for being exposed to books that range from new bestsellers to gently used to an entire catalog of rare books from Macaluso’s inventory, visitors have heaped much praise – and thanks -- on the shop’s new owners.
“When we first opened, we had people tell us that they are so glad that we’re continuing this space as a bookshop,” John said. “They have also been very complimentary about the changes we’ve made, but most importantly, they’re happy that we’re continuing Tom’s legacy to people in the community.”
After several months of a happy and successful operation, the Lynns realized that there was one more unplanned change they would be making.
Earlier this year, they changed the name to The Kennett Bookhouse.
“When we first opened under the name of Macaluso Books, we were finding that some customers were still expecting a rare book experience that we weren’t providing, which was of course Tom’s specialty,” John said. “We had broadened our offering to include new and gently used books, with much less of a focus on the rare book trade. Customers were telling us that they felt the space was like a home with cozy, comfortable rooms, and they wanted to relax with a cup of coffee and read or discuss books
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Courtesy photo
Tom Macaluso owned and operated Macaluso Rare & Fine Books for 40 years.
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with friends. We thought that by incorporating the word ‘Bookhouse,’ we were capturing and communicating the ambience felt within the store.
“We even found ourselves referring to locations in the store as the ‘living room’ and ‘the study.’ It’s really as if the store named itself,” Stefanie said.
During a time when the bookselling industry has become monopolized by the phenomenon of online sales, The Kennett Bookhouse joins the Kennett Resale Book Shoppe across the street, the Kennett Library and the popular PopUp lending libraries throughout the borough as stalwart saviors of getting books into the hands of readers the oldfashioned way.
“While it is true that people can go online and get a variety of books, they can’t establish a relationship with their bookseller,” John said. “Stefanie and I thought long and hard about our business model against the dynamic of online book selling, but one piece of data that we saw had to do with a resurgence of independent bookstores. We thought, ‘Let’s see if we can catch that wave,’ believing
that if we can provide the right bookstore experience for people, we will be able to differentiate ourselves from an online-only sales model.”
Prior to the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, The Kennett Bookhouse not only quickly earned a reputation for providing readers with the book they needed, they opened up their doors to a bok club and a writing group, with author readings and special events to follow. As Pennsylvania’s businesses began to conform to the “red” and “yellow” colors of the shutdown, however, The Kennett Bookhouse – which was closed to the public throughout the spring -- began partnering with Bookshop.org, an online book-selling organization that was created to financially support local brick-andmortar bookstores and help them compete against the giant online-only retailers.
“Bookshop.org has been a huge help to all independent booksellers, particularly during this challenging time,” Stefanie said. “It allows our customer to keep up with their browsing and buying without having to worry about personal contact during the pandemic.”
Following its reopening in the middle of June, The Kennett Bookhouse began an initiative that further integrates the Lynns and their bookshop into the fabric of Kennett Square: For each new book sold, 10 percent of its sale will be directed to Kennett-area non-profit organizations. The first recipient of that generosity was Kennett Area Community Service.
Call it a chapter marker of their own.
“Tom Macaluso was one of a kind, and we know we’ll never be able to fill his shoes, but he’s left a legacy in the form of books that are still a part of the store,” John said. “He did so many other things to promote the love of books and reading, and his legacy has left us with all of the goodwill that he shared with the community he loved.
“That’s a great starting point for any business,” he added. “Stefanie and I continue to meet and get to know so many great people, and it’s been great to see many of their friendly faces not only in the store but throughout town. We continue to receive a warm reception, and we have been honored to return that reception when people visit The Kennett Bookhouse.”
The Kennett Bookhouse is located at 130 S. Union Street in Kennett Square.
Order your next book by visiting https://bookshop.org/ shop/kennettbookhouse
To contact Staff Writer Richard L. Gaw, email rgaw@ chestercounty.com.
Square Community|
For those who till the soil there, the Community Garden in Anson B. Nixon Park has become not only an outgrowth of hard work, but a growing sanctuary of shared beliefs
A garden, by the people and for the people
By Eve Rachel Fisher Contributing Writer
Steve Denno, the manager of the Community Garden in Anson B. Nixon Park, grew up in a row home in Northeast Philadelphia that came with what he describes as a “postage stamp” backyard.
He was inspired to begin gardening by his next-door neighbor, a man in his 80s who used to let Steve help in his garden. Steve’s dad eventually bought him a sandbox, which he then transformed into a bed for radishes, tomatoes and peppers.
A gardener was born.
Fast forward to 2012. The garden’s 2008 founder was retiring, and Denno’s neighbors approached him to take over the founder’s role, and he did. With 68 individual plots -- and 20 devoted to growing food for the Kennett Food
garden, people
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and flowers grown in the “community area” of the community garden.
An important aspect of the garden is taking ownership of its upkeep. Participation in community work days is strongly encouraged. These consist of tasks such as building new plots, weeding around plots, and spreading mulch. There is also the opportunity to participate in the harvest of produce for the Kennett Food Cupboard at the end of the growing season. Other ideas for future garden activities include potlucks, live music, and gardening classes.
“We’re always open to hearing new ideas for the garden,” Denno said.
The garden boasts an eight-foot high fence with chicken wire installed in the bottom three feet and extending two feet out into the surrounding lawn, to keep out the many critters who call the park home. This prevents damage to crops that home gardeners often must contend with, from animals such as deer and rabbits.
There has historically been a problem with flooding in the garden; every time it rained, water ran unimpeded
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through the garden, leading to rotting plants, eroded soil, and big puddles. This was addressed in May with an installation of an earthen berm running alongside the garden and redirecting the rainwater into the woods. Steve plans to install a small patio with picnic benches, as well as a small children’s play area in the previously flooded section.
What do people grow? The short answer is everything. Popular crops include peas, tomatoes, squash, peppers, cucumbers, strawberries, and salad greens. Also popular are “cut and come again” flowers such as zinnias. Tomatillos, prickly pear cactus, corn, and okra have also flourished in these plots. One unusual crop is purslane. Known to some as a weed, these succulents are edible and highly nutritious, with beautiful flowers that open and close with the daylight.
In keeping with the ideal of contributing to the larger community, the garden has a relationship with Kennett Area Community Service’s Food Cupboard. The Food Cupboard serves people in Avon Grove, Unionville, and the Kennett Consolidated School District living at or below the Federal Poverty Level. About 1000 pounds of food are donated from the garden to the Food Cupboard each growing season.
The program includes partnerships with the Chester County Food Bank, Mary D. Lang Kindergarten Center, Kennett Square Preschool Co-op, and Upland Country Day School. Children grow and plant
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seedlings, make signs for the garden, water and weed, lay mulch, and harvest and deliver produce to the Kennett Food Cupboard. Individual gardeners can donate produce from their plots if they choose to as well.
Perhaps the largest intangible benefit of community gardening – certainly in evidence in Nixon Park -- is the development of relationships and a feeling of camaraderie. On any given day, gardeners can be seen commiserating about the weather, sharing gardening tips, and offering each other surplus produce from their plots.
“I’m always encouraging people, if they have a skill and want to share that, to just step up and do it,” Denno said.
In the time of coronavirus pandemic, tending a garden is one of the few “safe” activities that has not been influenced by a statewide shutdown, and apparently, local gardeners quickly capitalized soon after the pandemic reached Chester County. According to Denno, the community garden’s plots are not normally fully occupied until the end of May, but this year, they were all spoken for by mid-April, and he currently has a waiting list of eight people.
Denno said that during this uncertain time, community gardening can serve multiple therapeutic purposes beyond
just growing food. It connects the gardener to the tactile sensation of being outside, getting one’s hands in the dirt, feeling a part of nature and, especially now, it provides a healthy respite from the continuing onslaught of news.
“Community gardening gives us the sense that we are not alone, the knowledge that we are working alongside our neighbors, and that we are all in this together,” Denno said. “That value is of immeasurable worth.”
The Community Garden in Anson B. Nixon Park is located at the base of the hill in the park, behind the tennis courts and right below the main parking lot. Visitors are welcome, as are volunteers, who are encouraged to work in the garden even if they do not have a plot. If you are interested in learning more about the Community Garden in Anson B. Nixon Park, call 610-444-1416 or email ansonbnixonpark@gmail.com.
|Kennett
Photos by Jie Deng
Kennett Symphony Music Director Michael Hall shares his Kennett Square home with his wife Jennifer French, his stepdaughter Ella Masciulli and their family pets Mopsy and Topaz. One other occupant also calls it home – an invisible but permanent one -- that makes a precious sound that reverberates sweetly and repeatedly
Music in the home of the Maestro
Text by Richard L. Gaw
When Michael Hall moved to Kennett Square in 2014 to become the Music Director of the Kennett Symphony Orchestra, he and Jennifer French – now his wife of almost two years -- fell immediately in love with the history, the architecture and the untouched acreage of Chester County that seems to stretch forever. Six years later, they are still in awe of its beauty, and say that they are privileged to be living in the heart of a thriving but still intimate borough.
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Photo Essay
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It is not too overreaching to embrace the symbiotic relationship between the rural and quaint landscapes of Chester County to the swirling and magical sounds and emotion that classical music provides. In many ways, the home that Michael, Jennifer and Jennifer’s 17-year-old daughter Ella share is a place where the connection has become a real one.
On any given day, Michael will sit at his 1928 Hamburg Steinway Grand piano, studying scores to the pieces he is working on for upcoming Symphony concerts. Jennifer, who plays the French horn for the Lancaster Symphony and the Southwest Florida Symphony, enjoys being accompanied by her husband on the piano. Often, Ella – a recent honors graduate of the University Scholars Program in West Chester – joins in with her French horn.
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Photo Essay
Occasionally, the trio becomes a quartet: Mopsy, the family pug, accompanies Michael, Jennifer and Ella with a disapproving howl, an indicator that what she is hearing needs to be improved.
To learn more about Michael Hall and the Kennett Symphony Orchestra, visit https://kennetsymphony.org.
|Kennett Square Art|
It is rare for any of us to be given glimpses into our parents’ past and the sources for their inspiration. For one daughter, being allowed to roam about in her mother’s artistic life was a precious gift
‘All
along the meadow where the cows grazed and the horses ran’
Photo by Richard L. Gaw Frances Roosevelt with her oldest daughter, Caroline.
By Caroline Roosevelt Contributing Writer
Irecently met with my mother Frances Roosevelt at her Union Street Gallery in Kennett Square. It was a sunny day, and she wore a white blouse, grey trousers, black pumps and a chunky gold statement necklace.
I was there to interview her for this magazine.
Although many of the shops in town have recently reopened as Chester County has flipped its phases from red to yellow, the gallery’s hours remain by appointment only. I knocked on the door and my mother opened it. She then unlocked the door, let me in, and locked the door behind me. We conducted the interview with masks on.
While the economy sputters, and as the world has slowed to a snail’s pace, the artist Frances Roosevelt has sold more art in the last three months than when she was holding regular shop hours. “I’ve even sold a few paintings to people who have noticed my work while stopped at the traffic light on State and Union,” she chuckled.
It’s no surprise to me. My mother is a paradox, a hustler -- a force -- who nonetheless operates in the dark and in solitude, and the climate she has created for herself has always been this way.
When I was growing up, I sensed in my mother an energy, a warmth and a color, all tucked within a shell of darkness surrounding her. Quite literally. As a young child, I remember the angle of my bed was such that I could peer past the darkness of my bedroom into her office.
After my mother turned out the lights, I would crane my neck to catch a glimpse of her working in the office. It was that of movement, of the sepia light pouring from her desk lamp and reflecting off infinite wings of canary paper. I hated bedtime. I hated the dark. I hated the void. I wanted to be there in the room with her, in the world of Still Doing Things.
I do not know if my mother’s trajectory as an artist was by design, exactly, but it wasn’t by coincidence. Frances Roosevelt (nee Humphreys) grew up in Charleston,
S.C. in the pedestrian and now very posh part of the old colonial residential area. The neighborhoods didn’t hold that status during her childhood, and she describes her socioeconomic childhood as very middle class. The youngest of three siblings, she entertained herself in a quiet house, with parents who were exhausted from having already raised two other children a decade earlier. I asked her if she was encouraged to draw or paint when she was a little girl. She laughed.
“Not really from Mom and Dad, but I loved to draw,” she said. “I was alone a lot, and would draw my cat. I won first prize in an art show in first grade for ‘Kiki on a Blanket.’”
She lived down the street from her grandmother, Trudy, who provided my mother with love and attention otherwise lacking in her sterile home. Trudy really loved me, my mother reminds my siblings and me, and describes Trudy as the maternal energy she never received from her own mother. To this day, my mother still reminisces about Trudy during our Sunday dinners, and warmly retells the same story, the only story of Trudy that she has since we were born.
“When I had [my younger sister] Anna, I remember looking into her crib while she was sleeping, and I felt a presence over my shoulder,” she said. “I knew it was Trudy. She wanted to see the baby.”
After majoring in Art and English at the University of Virginia, Frances went on to graduate school to study architecture at Yale University.
“I had to major in English for my dad to agree to the art,” she explained. After graduation, she was urged, again at the behest of her father, to consider attending law school. Her mother famously chimed in that she should take some typing classes to become a secretary.
Frances followed the advice of neither. “I needed a steady income, so I chose architecture,” she said.
After receiving awards for her designs in graduate school and working for Robert Venturi (one of the most influential architects of the twentieth century), she spent several years
All images courtesy of the artist “Yellow Clouds.”
Frances Roosevelt
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working for award-winning residential architect Lyman Perry on the Main Line.
When I was an infant, she’d bring me to her office and put me in a bassinet under her desk, and by the time I was in kindergarten, she had started pulling back from her career, and was working as a contract architect. These were the nights of canary paper, of paper 3-D models, of protractors and exacto knives that I remember.
We volleyed back and forth with memories of that old office, and the 3-D renderings of her designs, which always included a couple of humans holding hands (for scale), in which the cutout man always wore a hat, slightly tilted. Each rendering of this couple was created with care and precision. I assumed these served as a representation of her parents.
When I was a child, I used to look at this couple, and in particular, the man in the hat, and wonder what childhood was like for my mother. Having the opportunity to interview her for a magazine article wasn’t an option at six years old, but as we continued to talk, I began to develop a sympathetic narrative for her. Her parents were quiet.
They were quiet as grandparents, too. * * * *
My mother told me that she likes to lay out her compositions first, “and then, Splash!” she said. As cars drove past my mother’s gallery along Union Street, they reflected the sun back into the studio and danced along the wall’s orange and golden dashes – colors so emblematic of my mother’s paintings. All through the interview, a ‘light in the darkness’ theme kept reverberating in my head, and I saw the splash -- the orange light dancing along the walls, like the light bouncing off the canary paper of her night office, like the solitary light from her studio surrounded by the crisp winter darkness.
Frances Roosevelt’s humility is both charming and infuriating. When I asked her about her gallery, she told me that she didn’t really plan to have a gallery, but that its purpose is to serve as a casual little destination for the art enthusiasts of Chester County and beyond, as well as the culmination of years of work, of illumination in the darkness, of quiet, frenetic movement eventually conceptualized on canvas and splashed upon the intersection of State and Union, in a way my mother will never admit.
Squeezing out the details of Frances’ artistic process felt
forced, almost painful, and even a quiet interview in her own gallery with only her daughter there asking questions was too much of a spotlight placed on her. When I asked her about her style, she stared off. I saw her eyes flit back and forth, wordsmithing the response in her head before even parting her lips.
“I’m of two minds when I paint,” she said. “I like to paint from memory, but then I have to supplement that with the totally abstract and goofy. It keeps me from getting too realistic. I love photography and photo realism, but it’s not what I want to do as a painter. Mood is important to me, and generally the mood is created with color.”
In her work, Frances focuses primarily on the abstract landscapes of Chester County or the Lowlands of South Carolina, usually creating a definitive horizon line around which vibrant strokes of periwinkle, gold, and tangerines swirl. She went on to mention her favorite painters, Helen Frankenthaler, Henri Matisse, Richard Diebenkorn (a map maker and evidently a darling among art-interested architects). I asked her for one outlier who doesn’t necessarily appear as a strong influence on her work.
“The Pre-Raphaelites,” she said.
I tugged at her with another question.
“You know, people love hearing about the process -- about what artists do when they paint,” I said. “They love hearing how it is you get into that comatose state of mind that allows you to hyper-fixate on a canvas for five hours. So how do you create your environment?”
“It’s embarrassing,” she said. “I listen to Simon and Garfunkel’s The Concert in Central Park album over and over again until I don’t even hear the music. I also love Mark Knopfler.”
* * * *
About 20 years ago, my mother, at her wits end with me as a hellish teenager, designed a studio for herself on the property of the family home near Kennett Square. It’s a simple one-room “shed” with a lofted ceiling, exposed beams, and a giant window facing the pasture that runs adjacent to the property my parents still live on.
From this small space, this is where the first 20 years of paintings were made, that later stacked up feverishly in the basement and the guest rooms and crawled along the walls
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“Marsh Gold.”
Frances Roosevelt
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of the first floor. Once she had that studio, I noticed a change in her.
It was as if she had learned how to breathe again.
“A lot of times I will sit in my studio and look at books of painters I admire,” she said. “I have my studio set over the landscape with the bird feeders. I like to sit and have nature go through the editing of my mind and then onto paper. I don’t like recreating what I see on the spot.
“It’s a very private thing for me. I could never do a workshop. I like being alone in my studio. Especially in the winter.”
To this day, no one except for the poodle is allowed in that studio.
The library at my parents’ house is loaded to the ceiling with books dissecting the Gospel of Thomas, or the study of the early mystics, theories on life after death, and the intersection of Science and Faith. Art books take up most of the rest of the library real estate and they can also be found squirreled away in her
studio stacked in neat little piles on the floor.
One of my favorite bedtime stories as a child was Leo Lionni’s Frederick. I knew the story well and while I remember my father
“Along the Bay.”
reading a lot of our bedtime stories as children, I only hear Leo Lionni’s “Frederick” in my mother’s soft voice.
All along the meadow where the cows grazed and the horses ran, there was an old stone wall, it began.
Illustrated in a minimalist assemblage style on the page, Frederick followed a family of field mice. One mouse in particular, was the source of constant criticism for sitting too still. Instead of storing food for the winter, he would close his eyes and soak in the colors of summer.
Upon the arrival of winter, when all the mice had hunkered down for their hibernation, Frederick wowed them with vivid descriptions of color, warmth, summer that he had soaked in and “stored” for the winter. It’s a beautiful story, and one that my mother loved to read to us, specifically.
I then asked my mother what the “a-ha” moment was for her as an artist, when she knew for the first time that she wanted to take her painting seriously. Frances perked up in her chair, and as though the words were waiting anxiously in the wings, she recounted the exact moment.
“[Local artist] Stan Smokler and Madeline were over for dinner about 15 years ago,” she said. “I had a tiny abstract sketch that I liked and I popped it into a frame I already had and put it on one of the bookshelves. Stan noticed it and said, ‘I really like this. Nobody does this anymore.’ That’s when I got excited again and that was the first year I participated in the barn show on (Peter) Welling’s property.”
I then asked Frances what she wanted to bring to Kennett Square.
“Well, before COVID, I was planning to work with Kennett High School and put on a show for a student each year,” she said. “I still hope to do that once this passes…I love this community. I just like being here. I grew up in a town where everyone walked around everywhere. I like being tucked away from everything but still right around the corner from the main street. It fits my personality that I’m tucked away.”
I wrapped up the interview and pulled my purse over my shoulder. We had been sitting still for a long time. She stood up and brushed the wrinkles out of her pants as we both started towards the door of the gallery.
“It’s like Frederick the Mouse,” I chuckled as I looked at the floor and looked back at her.
“Like Frederick the Mouse,” she responded.
I saw my mother’s eyes squint, and I knew she was smiling under her mask.
Lynell Pastormerlo, owner of Altruist Foods
When Lynell Pastormerlo opened Altruist Foods in Kennett Square last year, she had a mission to combine the convenience of catering with the growing popularity of vegan and plantbased specialty foods. Kennett Square Life recently asked Lynell to share the uniqueness of her business plan.
All photos by Adam Peterson
Lynell Pastormelo of Altruist Fods.
When did you begin Altruist Foods, and what inspired you to do so?
I started Altruist Foods in 2019. I began experimenting with aged vegan cheese recipes, and was blown away by the results. I couldn’t believe that a plant-based cheese could mold and have a rind and a tang so close to the real thing! I knew I was on to something when even my most skeptical family and friends couldn’t believe what they were eating was dairy free.
Many people say that they could never “go vegan” due to their love of cheese, but there are so many amazing vegan options nowadays. I would encourage anyone who cares about their health, animal welfare and the environment to try plant-based cheese. Those concerns are the ones that started me on the vegan path almost ten years ago.
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Altruist Foods specializes in vegan and plant-based specialties, as well as charcuterie boards.
Altruist Foods
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Altruist Foods specializes in providing catering needs that feature vegan and plant-based specialties, as well as charcuterie boards. While you’ve demonstrated that you provide a wide range of options, that’s still a fairly specialized food niche. Discuss your strategic reasons for focusing your business plan on that particular type of menu offering.
My partner and I love visiting breweries wherever we go. During one of those visits, we noticed that the brewery had a refrigerated case filled with local meats and cheeses for people to purchase and enjoy with their beer. Being vegan, we felt left
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Altruist Foods
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out and I thought how fantastic it would be if there was a vegan charcuterie box in that fridge. Around that same time, I also started noticing lots of posts on social media with gorgeous photos of vegan charcuterie boards at weddings and special events. I realized that people were really starting to take us (vegans and dairy allergy sufferers) into consideration like never before. It’s a specialized niche for now but plant based is the future and there is no stronger evidence of that than the health crisis we are currently facing.
While each menu created by Altruist Foods is unique as to the specifications of the client, what kinds of menus have you been creating, and at what kinds of events can a Kennett Square resident enjoy your work?
Right now, I am experimenting with blue cheese -- which is aged for close to six weeks -as well as vegan prosciutto. I also have a white rind cheese that is aged for one month, which
is most similar to brie. Generally, our charcuterie boxes consist of two to three small wheels of aged cheese, along with a stick of vegan pepperoni. It is the perfect size for two to three people to enjoy at their favorite brewery or winery (or anywhere else for that matter).
At some point in the near future I would love to be a part of the KSQ Farmers Market but until then, folks can contact me through the website for individual charcuterie boxes or event catering. Ultimately, my goal is to open a vegan cheese & charcuterie shop right here in Kennett.
What is your favorite spot in Kennett Square?
My hands down favorite spot in Kennett is Anson B. Nixon Park. It’s a gem! If we’re talking food and drink, I am a big fan of the bloody mary bar at the Creamery and the saisons at Braeloch Brewery are outstanding! Oh, and both have vegan menu items, which I greatly appreciate.
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Lynell Pastormerlo throws a dinner party. Who will be seated around the table?
I would invite the entire cast of the TV show 30 Rock!
What food or beverage can always be found in your refrigerator?
I would have to say raw cashews. Usually they are soaking in water to soften them. They are incredibly versatile and used in ways you would never expect.
To learn more about Altruist Foods, visit www. altruistfoods.com, or email altruistfoods@gmail.com.
- Richard L. Gaw
Ethel Ann Murphy
REALTOR/CBA Office 610-444-9090
Direct/Cell 610-368-9929
ethelann.murphy@foxroach.com • Top of the Rock Producer • Licensed in PA and DE
Member of Longwood Rotary Club
Member of Southern Chester County Chamber of Commerce
40 Years Real Estate Experience
“Excellence Through Experience With Ethel Ann”
"I would always prefer to write a formal note, but I wanted to pass on not just a compliment but truly a rare experience.
I am an executor of an Estate in PA, was a Managing Partner of a Real Estate development company in NC, and come from a Leadership/Management background with a concentration in Finance. We had a simple mantra in our firm: “You can tell the quality of Management, by the simple talents and execution of their employee!”…….
I just closed a piece of property in PA with one of your agents Ethel Ann Murphy, who was beyond professional. I have closed hundreds of properties, and I have never had such a seamless, professional, instant respond agent, who walked the process through flawlessly, while I was 6 states away. There is a difference between good and great and I have never had a more experienced agent anticipate, solve, and process, as I had with Ethel Ann. If you give out gold stars, accolades from afar, please put one on Mrs. Murphy and then one to each of you…..I have never had a more perfect process than when working with Mrs. Murphy!
While we have never met live, her personality, punctuality and follow up should be taught to every agent who sells Real Estate! I cannot emphasize enough the professionalism of this individual. Please also know it is a reflection of each of you. My sincerest gratitude for listing with your firm and Mrs. Murphy,"
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