EAST CALAIS – R. Edwards & Company has been awarded an AIA Vermont (AIAVT) Citation for Excellence in Architecture for its East Calais General Store project at this year’s AIAVT Annual Design Awards, December 5. The AIAVT Excellence in Architecture Design Awards are the highest state-level architecture awards conferred in Vermont. This project was one of six projects recognized this year.
courtesy photo
The East Calais Community Trust (ECCT) decided to restore the store as its first project, raising over $2.7 million to fund it and selecting Ryan Edwards, principal of R. Edwards & Company as the architect for the project.
Marc Mihaly, administrative chair for ECCT said, “It’s a deserved honor for Ryan Edwards. . . It’s rare that the AIA gives an award to an historic renovation because they prefer new buildings. It was an exceptional effort.”
ECCT is a non-profit organization created in 2019 by community members whose mission is to support local community development, sustainable economic growth, and historic preservation.
Their first project, the 1850 general store, once again became a social hub for the community when it officially reopened Friday, Oct. 27, 2023.
Store operator and manager, Jess Quinn lives just a half mile down the road. She was selected as a person whose goals were in alignment with the board’s vision, reported the Montpelier Bridge. “‘I was drawn to it,’ she remembers, driving by the store, and then, three months later, seeing a posting by the Community Trust in the Hardwick Gazette seeking a store operator. ‘In the back of my mind, I wondered, What if? The two-page letter of intent was easy to write,’ she said.”
Quinn was offered a long-term contract after several Zoom calls and a unanimous vote, reported the Bridge. Mihaly said ECCT owns much of the store’s large equipment, including refrigerators and a freezer.
The Preservation Trust of Vermont has been involved with the project that restored the oldest store in Vermont, according to Mihaly. It sits along a 22- mile stretch of Vermont’s Route 14 from Hardwick to East Montpelier that had three general stores a decade ago, but became a food desert when they closed. The Preservation Trust model creates a trust to hold the store, which prevents it from becoming housing with the retirement of the store owner, as happened when the Woodbury general store closed several years ago.
Mihaly said ECCT has been “Thrilled with Edwards’ design of a very complicated project.” Modern conveniences had been added in a helter-skelter way. If ECCT hadn’t been able to restore it as a store, it would have been a tear-down, he said.
E.F. Wall & Associates from Barre, served as the general contractor for the project, working closely with Edwards, who lives in E. Calais and works from his home. Edwards was on-site regularly to help work through the many issues that arose as the project progressed, said Mihaly
In a Facebook post December 10, Edwards recognized those he collaborated with on the project that earned him the AIAVT Citation Award in the Historic Preservation / Adaptive Re-Use / Rehabilitation category, saying “This project of course wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for the ECCT, specifically Marc Mihaly, Denise Wheeler, Jan Ohlsson, Susan Stitely and Melissa Brough, for their unwavering commitment to reopening the East Calais General Store following its abrupt closure in 2019.”
Edwards noted the importance of the role Jeff Kantor played as the owner’s representative. He “was instrumental in tracking, allocating and administering the project’s extensive funding package from 21 local, state and federal funding sources, plus private donations. Brian Pine’s Pine Consulting and Liz Curry with CommonLand Solutions, both in Burlington helped to bring in many of those 21 funders.
Others involved were teams from Engineering Ventures in Burlington, providing civil and structural engineering services and Engineering Services of Vermont, based in Rutland with mechanical, plumbing and electrical engineering services.
Scott Newman of Burlington’s 106 Associates served as historic preservation consultant, helping to navigate the National Park Service review process and working with the team at the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation. Steve O’Malley of Efficiency Vermont and Matt Stankiewicz of 3E Thermal in Barre provided much needed technical assistance on all of the many extensive energy efficiency improvements made to the building in order to make it the first all-electric, fossil-fuel free general store in Vermont.
Edwards said, “Historic preservation is a team sport and it takes dozens of amazing people to successfully execute a project like this one. We are incredibly grateful to have had the opportunity to work on such a meaningful project with so many talented people and can only hope that our efforts will keep this wonderful building standing for another 174 years.”
The East Calais General Store now offers daily breakfast until 11 a.m., coffee, lunch, soups, dinner specials, groceries, fresh produce, local flowers, beer, wine, tobacco, fishing supplies and many other items. It is open Tuesday to Friday from 6:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The store is closed on Monday.
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
