A $500,000 rural development grant helped the Town of Ayden and Quilt Lizzy owner Susan Harris renovate an old building on South Lee Street to house a new sewing and craft store and meeting center.
Cornerstone of redevelopment Quilt Lizzy, which opened in July, already is helping bring people back downtown, town leaders said By Kayla Green
A chance detour caused by flooding from a hurricane is helping Ayden revitalize its downtown. Susan Harris, the founder and owner of Quilt Lizzy, was driving from the coast to her home in Warrenton, where she opened her first sewing and crafting store. Flooding closed the road she was on and she needed an alternate route. A phone app redirected her up N.C. 43 through Vanceboro and had her take a left on N.C. 102, bringing her right into Ayden. When she came into town and saw the old houses she thought, “Wow, this is pretty, and gosh this kind of reminds me of War-
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renton because Warrenton has a lot of historic homes. “And as I got right into downtown … I saw all these empty buildings.” The lifelong North Carolina resident had been looking to expand east, and she wanted an old building to renovate and invigorate a downtown. “I’m very passionate about seeing downtowns come back to life … you wait until you see downtown Ayden in 20 years,” she said. Harris called the town manager of Warrenton and inquired about Ayden. Soon after, she made contact with Steve Harrell, then Ayden’s town manager. Working with town officials, she identified a dilapidated storefront at 4260 S. Lee St.
A detour during a hurricane brought Susan Harris to Ayden several years ago. It wasn’t long after that she began working to open the fourth Quilt Lizzy in a dilapidated downtown storefront.
WINTER 2021-SPRING 2022
AYDEN MAGAZINE
