Vintage Beallsville building gets new life as
Fairway Florals
By Dave Zuchowski
Dave Zuchowski/for the Observer-Reporter Owners Nancy and Chris Vankirk stand in front of their shop, Fairway Florals
An unassuming building at the crest of Beallsville Hill seems Two years ago, he rented a small building in Richeyville to have had quite a past. across from the GetGo on Route 40 and called it the LitAs far as the current owner, Chris Vankirk of Scenery Hill, tle Shop Around the Corner. In the small, 700-square-foot knows, the nearly 100-year-old structure started as a cafe space, Nancy began making silk flower arrangements. When and gas station called the Nemacolin Inn. Through the the shop opened a week before Christmas in 2021, she sold years, it also served as an Amoco station and a hoagie and out of her inventory in seven days. pizza shop. For the past 20 years or so, it stood vacant until “That’s when I knew there was a market for what I Vankirk bought it in September 2023. do,” she said. Flashback to several years ago when Vankirk’s wife, Nancy, Soon, people started to ask for live flower arrangements retired after teaching school for 31 years. Chris saw that she in addition to her silk product. To hone her skills, she was getting bored with retirement and didn’t want her just to attended classes at the Pennsylvania Floral Academy in sit around on the couch wasting away. Pittsburgh, where she received a certificate in 2022. When Knowing his wife had been arranging flowers since the age Chris’s brother got married in the Poconos that same year, of 16, that she made her own prom bouquet and flowers for she made her first live wedding arrangements. “It proved to school and even taught floral arranging as an art activity in be a huge success,” she said. the after-school program, an idea popped into his head, For Valentine’s Day last year, she sold roses at a time when she “When I suggested she try her hand at professional floral didn’t have a cooler in her shop. Fortunately, the temperatures design, the sparkle in her eyes told me she truly embraced outside were low, and she sold 400 roses in a single day. the idea,” Chris said. By Valentine’s Day the following year, she’d purchased On left: a cooler from a florist in Greensburg, and her inventory Courtesy of Fairway Florals grew to include gift items and jewelry she bought from This 2022 Christmas display shows just how detailed Nancy Vankirk is with her decor and offerings. different companies and vendors. N OV E M B ER 24, 2023 | M O N VA L L E Y M AGA ZI N E | 25