Photos courtesy of Drift Digital Media
V3: To say you have been an active member of the Roman community would be an understatement. Through all your adventures championing our small town, what led you to open Cecil T’s Mercantile?
MS: For me, it is impossible not to celebrate our wonderful community! We are blessed with so much creative talent in our area as well as an incredibly rich history that thrived on celebrating the arts. I love this town and I love creative expression and I wanted to create a place that would feature the artists that I know and love from my time as co-director of the Chiaha Harvest Fair, and provide a place for all to experience art on their own terms. We are building our offering of classes, poetry readings, art exhibits and other opportunities to learn and express, and now that The Screen Door Room is complete, we are thrilled to host some incredible musical artists from outside of our area to give people a very intimate listening room experience with artists they might not have had a chance to hear, otherwise.
V3: Tell us more about that journey and what obstacles you had to overcome to create your vision on Broad Street?
MS: Our biggest obstacle is one that I was fully aware of when I chose our spot, and that is being off of the beaten Broad Street path. I made that choice with eyes wide open, because the Cotton Block is a wonderful keystone of Rome’s development, and I loved the idea of being at the epicenter of the industries of our town. The railroad and the steamboats are no longer around, but I think it is important to remember the high level of trade that occurred there and that fueled much of Rome’s growth. You don’t get to be the city with the oldest symphony in the South, or the first theater designed for talking films in the South, without a thriving economy and a community that is thirsty for enrichment. But the challenge of choosing that location is that it is hard to get people to cross Second Avenue to see what wonderful things we have to offer on our block!
V3: You really focus on finding unique items that are locally sourced. Tell our readers about your vendors and how those relationships are forged?
MS: I used to be an artist, a nature/landscape photographer, and met a lot of talented artists in my time on the art show circuit around the Southeast. My time with Chiaha expanded that network significantly, so I have a large number of friends and artists to draw from in curating the store’s offerings. Our community is so good at supporting our local artists so our store is not the only place you can find them, but I am proud to have recently realized that we are representing over 75 local and regional artists, crafters and makers, and that makes me really happy.
V3: Who are some of your regular vendors and what items keep your customers coming back for more?
MS: Well, there are too many to name them all! I am particularly thrilled to have the only available collection of Lee Staven’s work. Lee was the first head of the art department at Berry College and when he moved on to Agnes Scott in Atlanta he created a serigraph printing process that involved compression rather than the traditional squeegee process, which allowed him to marble and layer colors with very intricate detail, and we have a collection of his prints as well as some really amazing original paintings for sale. We are very close to publishing a collection of his poems as well. He was a very prolific and frequently published poet and I am excited for the release of that collection. Meanwhile, a customer favorite in the store is his daughter Heidi Carpenter’s puppets. She is a professional puppeteer in Atlanta and her pieces are just wonderful! We have numerous jewelers, potters, painters, and photographers. Then there are the many crafters making soaps, candles, wood utensils and clocks, artisanal sourdough bread and delicious pies! I’m really excited about all that we have to share, sprinkled with unique vintage pieces and specially curated additions to round out the experience for all ages.
V3: Sundays seem to be active at Cecil T’s, with some special events and opportunities just to enjoy the shop and conversation with other patrons. Tell us a little more about Sunday’s at Cecil T’s.
MS: I love our Sunday afternoons at Cecil T’s. We have a pretty abundant flow of tourists through our area these days, and I spend a good bit of time talking with them about our great town and I wish that more places were open on Sunday to increase that experience. We envision many more Sunday afternoon activities such as an open board games group, an afternoon bluegrass jam session, and a letter-writing bar, for starters. But, any Sunday of the week you can come hang out, grab a craft soda from the cooler, sit in the rockers for a good chat, play checkers under the tree, or plink out a tune on the community piano out front. We want people to feel that Cecil T’s is a community as much as a store.
V3: Tell our readers about the new Screen Door Room and how that concept came to fruition.
MS: When we first opened the store, I really wanted the slam of a screen door but there was no way to add that to the front door. I opted instead to add one to the door to the back of our space, which, at the time, was a dark and musty storage area. The only people who got to experience that screen door were us and visitors to our restroom (she says while giggling.) Having a retail store is hard business and I realized early on that I needed to maximize our income potential by transforming that back area into a usable space, and The Screen Door Room was born. Its name was an obvious choice and that crazy screen door now has a purpose, and I have carried that theme into the space with old screen doors backing the stage area. We now have a warm and funky space that is perfect for musical shows, book signings, poetry readings, art classes and party rentals, and occasional art exhibits. We are currently hosting a quilt exhibit of beautiful pieces by local quilter, Clare Gilliland.
V3: You have already generated a lot of buzz with some of the artists that have performed. Tell us about some of those acts and any upcoming events you’d like to share with our readers?
MS: I have been thrilled about some of the wonderful artists we have already been able to showcase on the Screen Door stage. This concept was born as a sort of continuation of something that Cameron Cook started at the Kingfisher Art Gallery that used to be on Second Avenue. Cameron has incredible Americana connections and would bring touring artists to our area as they made their way between Atlanta, Chattanooga and Birmingham.
With Cameron’s help, we have taken up that idea and begun to create our own relationships with agents and artist that have an interest in sharing their music with Rome. We have hosted such great acts as Larry & Joe, a duo out of North Carolina pairing Venezuelan and Appalachian folk; Abe Partridge, a regional favorite troubadour who drew an audience from Atlanta, Birmingham and Calhoun to our little hometown stage; and Marty O’Reilly, a gifted singer/songwriter from California who gained a national fan base in a stint on The Voice, just to name a few.
Our most recent show featured Jack Fishback, an 18-year-old boogie-woogie piano genius from Kentucky who completely floored the audience when he stopped in on his way to a folk festival in Birmingham. We are building this schedule as the year progresses, but I can assure you that there is much more incredible stuff to come!
V3: Are there any other exciting things on the horizon at Cecil T’s that you would like our readers to know about?
MS: Every day is an adventure and I am so excited at all the possibilities we have in our future in our little corner of the Cotton Block. Our observation beehive that was a fan favorite for a while has proven harder to maintain in its original concept on the window, so we will be working on an alternative plan that will keep the bees happier and healthier in the coming months. And, as we continue to develop our slate of classes and shows, we would love to hear what people would like to see us offer. Feel free to reach out at our Facebook and Instagram pages for Cecil T’s Mercantile or The Screen Door Room and let us know what you would like to see.
