Editor’s note: This article by John Lippman was first published in the Valley News on Jan. 29.
The small-town general store is hardly thought to be a growth industry. The business in recent years has been marked by closings and abandonments.
In few Upper Valley towns was this more evident than in Tunbridge, which was once served by two general stores — the Tunbridge Store in the village and the North Tunbridge General Store 2 miles up Route 110 — but both closed, leaving townsfolk inconvenienced when they needed to fill up on gas or grab a carton of eggs, a six-pack or a sandwich.
But Tunbridge may soon be a two-store town again.
John Houston, a Los Angeles filmmaker who relocated to Vermont during the pandemic, has purchased the Tunbridge Store building from Scott Terami, who stopped operating the store in 2019.
The store was put on the market last year with an asking price of $349,000, and the Vermont property transfer tax return filed with the town shows Houston purchased it for $295,000.
In recent weeks, Terami has been holding a “liquidation” of the building’s eclectic contents — vintage radios, antique furniture, wicker baskets, classic Schwinn bicycles, many of which he picked up at estate sales — and was hoping to wrap up and clear the way for Houston.
Houston’s purchase of the Tunbridge Store follows by a couple months the purchase of the North Tunbridge General Store up the road by Lois and Mike Gross. The longtime Tunbridge couple have been getting the store, which has been closed since 2016, ready to reopen later this month.
Houston began visiting Tunbridge in 2014, when his stepfather, Nick Nichols, acquired a couple of Anichini founder Susan Dollenmaier’s properties in a court-ordered auction after the luxury fabric products company ran onto the financial shoals of the Great Recession.
Houston, who made Tunbridge his home with his wife, Erica, and newborn son, Jack, now resides in one of those properties on Route 110, next to which he has had built a timber frame barn from where he plans to sell produce grown in the adjoining field.
“I fell in love with the town. We’re making it our home,” said Houston, who was reached on the phone in San Diego, where he was on duty with his Navy Reserve unit.
He labels the barn as “a community space” that will also have an “agriculture purpose” — he and his wife had the religious ceremony there following a civil marriage officiated by the late Euclid Farnham — although he is still mulling ideas on how it will evolve.
The purchase of the Tunbridge Store was an opportunity that presented itself, Houston explained, but he envisions it as offering a “hot food” menu and combining that with some kind of retail element.
But at the same time, Houston says he’s going to get feedback from people in the community to find out what they would like to see at the store.
“The most important thing is that it serve the Tunbridge community. I might come from L.A., and I could create something which looks nice but doesn’t do anything good for the town,” he said. “That’s not what I want to do.”
Houston also emphasized that he is not looking to compete with the North Tunbridge Store and wants to “work in concert” with the new owners to make sure they are not cannibalizing each other’s business.
