The [Henderson] Daily Dispatch
OXFORD -- The former Jones drugstore reopened this week with the same Jones name, minus the pharmacy, but with the old time lunch counter, grill and soda fountain intact in a remodeled interior featuring an Internet cafe and a custom framing shop.
Kathleen Wiegersma is the owner of the new business, at 116 Hillsboro St. in the central business district, and Trinity Delorme is her general manager. Wiegersma's husband, Skip, owns Skip's Aquatic Solutions along Barker Road near Henderson.
Kathleen Wiegersma, who is originally from upstate New York, has been in the Raleigh-Durham area for about 25 years and in the Oxford area for less than five.
She worked several years for Nortel Networks and started working in the rear of a frame shop just to the northeast along Hillsboro Street at the intersection of College Street.
"And, the next thing I know, we're off on this adventure," she said moments before the grand opening.
She said, the new business resulted from her being approached by a "Save Jones Grill" contingent.
"The first time, we said, 'Sorry, it's a little more than we can handle right now,' but, then, we thought a little bit more about it and thought it would be a good icon to keep in this area," she said.
"I think she has done a wonderful job," Skip Wiegersma said.
The former Jones pharmacy, which dated to July 1955, had been one of the mainstays in the picturesque heart of Granville County.
Charlie Jones in early September announced that, although he would close the place, he would be joining the team at Walgreens, which early last month opened nearby at the corner of Hillsboro and Linden Avenue. Members of Jones' team also joined the new drugstore.
Kathleen Wiegersma, in tribute to the former Jones drugstore and grill, has giant boards showing memorabilia and photographs near the lunch counter.
"A lot of memories on that board," said one of Jones' sons, Randall, with his mother, Frances, standing alongside.
Frances Jones said her husband could not attend the opening because he was working at Walgreens, but she noted, '"He came by here real early this morning."
Of her opinion of the new business, she said, "It's different" but added, "I'll get used to it."
She likes to talk about the past, including when a "coffee club" of men would meet at a long table.
"Oh, yes, definitely," she immediately replied with a laugh when asked whether the men solved the world's problems.
"If they said a cuss word, they had to pay," she said, a reference to a jar being in the middle of the table. "And I'll tell you, they raised a whole lot of money."
"It was some good old days here. Unbelievable," she said.
City Commissioner Chance Wilkinson moments earlier looked at the old photographs, which show Charlie Jones in the styles of clothing from the 1950s through the 1970s.
"It's been an institution," Wilkinson said.
Wilkinson said he is pleased with the new business. And that, even in a recession, Oxford's city center has had great luck.
"If you look downtown, there's been very few buildings that have been empty very long, so I was confident that something would come in here. I didn't think it would be this quick, but I was confident," Wilkinson said.
And Wilkinson said he believes the novelty of the new business will be an attraction in the short term.
"Then, it's like any other business. You have to just do your job and have a good product and people will come and support you," Wilkinson said.
Jackie Sergent is health promotion coordinator at the Granville-Vance Health District Department, a community activist and a candidate for the City Commission. Sergent purchased a cup of cappuccino. "And it's delicious," she said.
"I just hope people patronize the place, I really do. I just wish them every bit of success.
And it's up to us as residents to come in and help them stay open," she said.
Delorme, who was waiting on Sergent, had owned the frame shop at Hillsboro and College until approximately three years ago. Delorme said he had since been commuting to the capital city to work as a florist.
"I won't miss Raleigh at all," he said.
The business hours are from 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Mondays through Fridays and 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Saturdays, although the grill will not yet be open on Saturdays, Kathleen Wiegersma said.
