About Us in 2024
Over three decades ago, 1990 to be exact, in Roanoke, VA, three self-employed friends met for breakfast on Mondays to brainstorm on “Million Dollar” ideas for a new business startup. A couple of very ambitious ideas surfaced: a public bulletin board to provide a market for exchange of used possessions .and. a self-serve kiosk to dispense new release videos. You will recognize these now as eBay .and. RedBox! Remember, this was prior to widespread use of internet or introduction of cell phones; information at that time was transferred over phone lines at the rate of 300bps – now that speed is measured in gigabytes.
Being prohibitively costly to finance a project like eBay, the team had to downscale. The idea of a collectible series of ornaments commemorating significant cultural .or. historical landmarks became a reality. We obviously started with the Mill Mountain Star known over the Southeast. The pieces were (.and. still are) produced by a company in the heartland of the USA. Funded from our combined allowances, only 300 pieces were shipped on the initial order. A small ad was placed in the Roanoke Times with a phone number to call i.e. call center today. Can you imagine that? Of course we are now online .and. can setup shop anywhere with Point of Sale software .and. an iPad. Advances in technology allow us now to receive notification of new orders on Apple Watch!
Although we had expanded to Richmond, VA, as well as a couple of other cities, it was never possible for the team to give up their day jobs; the project was abandoned after five(5) years. A second partnership added six(6) Roanoke ornaments as well as four(4) Colonial Williamsburg pieces. Our pieces were featured in all the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation retail shops. We also started a series of Outer Banks’ lighthouses in VA .and. NC; all of these are pre 20th Century .and. are on the National Register of Historic Places. Abandoned again after six(6) years.
Then in Spring of 2013 with snow on the ground, one of the original partners .and. her brother invited a group of friends to join them on a “motor” trip for lunch at Chateau Morrisette. During the ride we held a “Board of Directors” meeting .and. actually did research on route by using cell phone access to internet to “Google” the history and background of Roanoke for additional sites to add to our Roanoke series.
Since 2013 we have completed the Roanoke Collection at nineteen(19) pieces with two(2) recently retired. We have partnered with many specialty retail shops, including Hallmark. Our manufacturer produces a very high quality deliverable, absent of rejects. Using their expertise we have also partnered on custom projects as with Roanoke College on their 175 Year Anniversary.
.And. so the story goes… now a brother~sister team for the past ten(10) years. We have a great time during the Holiday Season interacting with our long time .and. new customers, even doing local delivery ourselves. The goal in 2024 has been to vitalize the lighthouse project by reintroducing these pieces in full color. As you can imagine, there are hundreds of these historic sites in the US alone. The sky is the limit!
