For Andy Gartenberg, 133 S. Main St. in Chambersburg is like home.
After all, his family has spent 73 years providing jewelry to customers from the downtown venue.
That will change sometime after the popular IceFest in 2020. Gartenberg will take his tools of the trade to the home where he has an art studio and officially retire from the jewelry business.
“My parents (Egon and Belle) opened this store in 1946,” Gartenberg said recently as he sat in the store where sales have begun in advance of the closing. “I was born in 1954. I was always here.
“Since I was bar mitzvahed, I would work part time in here. When I came home from college, Mom would say, ‘Hi, come on down.’ I would wrap presents, clean jewelry, do everything but the important stuff when I was young. I don’t even think I got paid.”
The Gartenbergs sold Belle Jewelers in 1971, but they stayed involved. After earning an art degree at Penn State, Andy worked as a potter and in the restaurant business before hitting the road selling jewelry wholesale. In 1993, he decided to remake the family business legacy.
Forty-seven years to the day, Andy opened his own jewelry story in the same spot, and this time with the name Gartenberg on the door.
“It was a good move,” he said. “I felt I could do a good job. I felt with my family’s reputation that I could do well.”
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Chambersburg was an intentional location selected by the Gartenbergs. After his parents were married in Altoona, they searched for a place to settle, and Chambersburg was the spot.
Gartenberg’s father, who escaped the Nazis in Austria in 1939, worked locally as a college professor, and was an author, music historian, musician and conductor. He was developing a television series when he died.
It was his mother who had the genes for jewelry. She helped her father, a watchmaker and optician who emigrated from Russia in 1910, operate a store in Altoona. She worked in the jewelry business for 70 years.
“I learned the business through my mom,” Gartenberg related. “My dad did, too, and he had other ambitions.
“Main Street was a great place when they operated the store. It had everything. It had women’s stores, men’s stores, restaurants. It was wonderful. I’m not saying it’s not nice now, but it was a whole different proposition. There wasn’t any competition out of town. And they thrived. They really did.”
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Belle Gartenberg emphasized customer service, and Andy followed suit.
“My mom was a wonderful salesperson. She was compassionate. She was a peace keeper,” the third generation jeweler said. “We’ve tried to keep that focus on customer satisfaction. It’s a confidence they have when they leave. You can’t screw customers these days and last very long in a little town this. Good news travels fast. Bad news travels faster.
“I am absolutely grateful to the customers for their trust and confidence. It’s neat that they came to us because they trusted us, knew they would get a fair deal and be treated well. I will miss my customers the most. I’m grateful for the business that everyone has given us.”
Gartenberg will soothe the bitterness of leaving a store that is like home with the sweetness of having time for his art.
“I work in clay, metal, glass and wood,” the soon-to-be retiree said. “I have about 12 projects in my studio that I want to complete.”
Joyce F. Nowell is a Gannett reporter based at Herald-Mail Media in Hagerstown, Md.
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December 21, 2019 at 12:19AM
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Gartenburg Jewelry closing its doors after 73 years in Chambersburg - Public Opinion
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