4 minute read
What Fun It Was For 66 Years
What Fun It Was For 66 Years
By Pat Reilly
The Fun Shop, which co-owner Betsy Allen Davis aptly called “the anchor store of Middleburg,” closed its doors July 8, 2023 after 66 years. For weeks, customers had been dropping in to pay their respects and help empty the shelves as prices dived.
“The love that we’ve gotten assures us that we have accomplished what mom set out to do—take care of the town,” Betsy said.
Betsy and her sister, Page Allen, are doing what their parents envisioned for them, retiring to pursue more of what they’d like to do, not what they have to do.
“I was nine years old when I started working here,” Betsy said. “It wasn’t child labor—I loved it.”
On weekends, she’d work with the greeting cards, a favorite feature of the store among shoppers. She went on the payroll in 1976, when she moved back to the area after marriage. She eventually became the office manager, but somehow found time to serve as mayor of Middleburg from 2006 to 2018, bringing business expertise to the official job of taking care of Middleburg.
Before The Fun Shop opened in 1956, there were no malls or big box stores near the Middleburg area. Families had to go 50 miles to D.C. to get good school clothes at places like Garfinckel’s and Woodward & Lothrop. The late Nancy Lee Allen realized a dream when she opened her own little department store with seed money from her mother.
She started in a tiny building down Washington Street near what is now the Safeway parking lot, then later moved into the front room of her late husband, Howard’s, photo studio and expanded to the ten rambling rooms of elegant and eclectic wares that put the fun in shopping.
She provided customers what they asked for but she also knew what they would be needing. We did it “with service and a smile,” Betsy added, “and gift wrapping, shopping advice, later loyalty points…”
Said Page, “We always tried to keep things affordable for most people.”
The village has changed and retailing has transformed exponentially. “We’ve had ebbs and flows,” Page said. “Every time there’s a new experience, people want to try it out.”
Amazon and countless other online shopping sites put a damper on mom-and-pop shops. The Fun Shop survived, Betsy said, “because you could touch the goods, feel them and go home with them.”
Page managed the store and did the buying. So often, she said, people would come in and say, “I’ve looked everywhere for this!” At the same time, she’d be thinking, “Why didn’t you look here first?”
One of Betsy’s favorite moments came one day years ago while she was sitting in her office near the children’s department during the holidays. That’s when she overheard a father tell his young son, “Daddy came here when he was a little boy.”
The sisters know the store was a touchstone for many people’s memories, not only their own.
Betsy summed it up, saying, “It’s sad, but it’s time.” After running the family business for so many years, she looks forward to having more time for her four grandchildren.
Added Page, “Now I’ll have time to relax. I’ll get some of the weeds out of the garden and out of my brain.” She’ll start by cruising in Europe.
The Fun Shop soon will be replaced by a steakhouse that Betsy would like to think will have a touch of the iconic but now long-gone Coach Stop restaurant. She hopes the community will embrace the new restaurant, just as it’s done with the fabulous Fun Shop over the last 66 years.
