Published: September 30, 2007 11:27 pm      

Framing a future

Gallery beats the business odds

ASHLAND — When Jo Etta Lynch and her father, Clayton Barker, first opened The Frame Up Gallery in April 1977, downtown Ashland was a different place.

Every block thrived with businesses and throngs clogged the sidewalks. But by the end of the next decade, following the departure of Ashland’s largest employer and the demise of dime stores, the busy main streets were all but abandoned.

Now, after more than a decade of efforts by city officials, community leaders and the small entrepreneurs who remained downtown through it all, the central business district is poised for a comeback.

The Frame Up Gallery, which has beaten the odds from the very beginning, is just one of many longtime shops greeting the new era with open arms.

A beginning

“They said if I could last for three years it would be a miracle,” Lynch says now, laughing while recalling the lawyer who helped her with her business plan advised she set up shop in her garage. “I said, ‘I don’t have a garage,’” Lynch adds.

The Frame Up Gallery first opened on the basement floor of the building at 1436 Winchester Ave. Located below the Good News Book Store, the shop was directly across the street from a busy Ashland Oil building.

Thirty years ago, the building teemed with women doing clerical and administrative work, Lynch recalls. It was with those women in mind that Lynch developed her business plan. She had planned on not only framing the women’s precious photographs and memorabilia but selling them the stylish home décor from places like New York and Paris she had filled her shop with.

But within weeks of gallery opening, Ashland Oil announced it would move out of its downtown location.

“I thought, ‘How are we going to survive?’” Lynch said.

Looking back now, she said it was just the first of many disappointments she would have to overcome to stay in business.

“You just run into those dilemmas with the economy all the time,” Lynch said.

Three years passed and instead of shutting down, business was strong enough that Lynch expanded onto the upper floors of the building.

Surviving

The years that followed brought even more challenges. Watching the shops and stores that once made the downtown thrive close their doors was difficult. Looking back, Lynch said, “some nights I was the only light on.”

She said her business is faith-based and believes whole-heartedly it has continued to thrive and grow for a reason. Although, Lynch admits, she’s not sure just what that reason is yet.

“All I knew was I loved it and my father worked with me every day and he loved it and (my husband) Bob started loving it and people started coming and loving what we did. We started filling a need,” Lynch said.

In 1995, inspired by a trip to France, Lynch opened a small café in the Gallery, now known as Café Zeal. The vision behind the café was to create an ambiance not to be equaled in Ashland.

The café serves homemade gourmet sandwiches, salads and desserts along with specialty coffees and tea blends. The mood of the café is set with relaxing music and the surrounding artwork.

“Right after I came back from the South of France, I just knew that’s what we needed in downtown Ashland,” Lynch said, “a place where people could stop and have a conversation, with coffee or tea and a good lunch.”

The same year Café Zeal opened, Lynch’s husband, Bob, came to work full time in the shop. Bob Lynch had always worked in the gallery framing items, but often his work often took place in the wee hours of the night, after a long day at Armco Steel. When Armco downsized and Bob was laid off, he joined his wife at the store each day.

“The fun part is when Jo Etta is out doing things, she comes up with the ideas and it’s up to me to make it happen,” Bob Lynch said, adding he often wonders how she comes up with some of her ideas.

He said those challenges, combined with the joy the couple’s work creates for customers are what has kept the couple in business.

“You feel like you’ve done something for someone and every day they see it it brings them pleasure,” Bob Lynch said.

Believing their own business would prosper if others did as well, the Lynches became active early on in Ashland’s Main Street program. They worked to bring the Pendleton Art Center to town and helped push for the Streetscape project.

“If you are not a positive thinking person in business, what’s the point? And if you don’t believe in your town, what’s the point?” Jo Etta Lynch said.

Evolution

The Lynches’ three children, Rob, 33, Ryan, 30, and Sarah, 28, were raised in their parents’ shop and now share their parents’ passion for seeing it thrive.

Although all three have worked at the shop at one time or another, Rob, who recently moved his family back to Ashland from Memphis, Tenn., is currently the only one with his parents full time at the shop, though he is looking for another job.

He’s using his skills to move the gallery into the 21st century by adding technology. This summer, at Rob’s urging, Bob and Jo Etta installed a new big screen television in Café Zeal so guests can learn about the store’s featured artist while enjoying their homemade lunches and specialty coffee drinks.

A projector screen and surround sound system have also recently been added to newly renovated lower level, dubbed The Cellar, and the entire building has also been equipped with wireless Internet.

In another move to modernize its business, the Lynches have launched two new Web sites. At www.theframeupgallery.com, customers can view the store’s featured artisian exhibits and shows, purchase the new décor and other unique gift items in addition to exploring the latest custom framing options. At Café Zeal’s site, www.discoverzeal.com, customers can reserve a table for lunch or order take out, sign up for the coffee club or visit the online store.

“It will, in the long run, help us get our concept out into the world not just in Ashland,” Jo Etta Lynch said. “We’ve been on Mainstreet in Ashland all these years. This will enable us to be somewhere else as well.”

Not that they ever want to leave. The Lynches are proud they’ve been able to sustain the Gallery and preserve the mood Jo Etta Lynch set out to create three decades ago.

“I love traveling the backroads, and these types of places are so rare,” Jo Etta Lynch said.

CARRIE KIRSCHNER can be reached at ckirschner@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2653.