Friday, November 21, 2014NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- As you drive down the hill to the borough of Volant, Pa., you see one building stand out: Volant Mills. You can’t miss it. It sits at a bend in the road, a three-story white building with a blue sign proclaiming its name. It has been the center of commercial activity in Volant since it was built in the early 1800s.
Today the building, which is mostly a gift store, is one of the town’s top tourist attractions.
“It’s a step back to a simpler, less stressful way of life,” says Karen Rockenstein, a member of the Volant Community Development Corp. “We get to live it every day, but somebody looking to relax can take time out of their busy lives for it.”
Following a statewide trend, Lawrence County’s second-largest industry is tourism. Driving that business, says Janet Falotico, executive director of the Lawrence County Tourism Promotion Agency, is the central location between destinations in New England and other Midwest locales.
“They [tourists] will generally come in through Boston or New York and go to Washington, D.C., over to Pittsburgh through New Castle for the Amish [country] and then head to Niagara Falls,” she says. “Or vice versa, starting in Niagara. That happens a lot.”
In New Castle, she continues, the primary draw is the city’s historic North Hill district.
“It has cultural jewels like the Scottish Rite Cathedral and the Hoyt Center for the Arts and the Historical Society Mansion. Those are all magnificent mansions that people can tour and see the history,” Falotico says.
For the most part, however, tourism in Lawrence County relies on the quaint small towns the dot the Appalachian foothills. Many come for that small-town feel or to see the Amish communities. As you drive through the county, you see signs advertising Amish furniture, Amish quilts and any number of Amish-made amenities. Some visitors, usually those from abroad, are surprised to find out that most of the Amish in Lawrence County are Old Order Amish who, for the most part, aren’t allowed to sell what they make.
“They expect to go to a working farm. I ask people, ‘How would you like it if you were working in your garden and a gaggle of tourists asked if they could watch you work and go through your house?’ That’s how the Amish are around here. They’re there to work and live.” says Collin Crombie, owner of Amish Peddler in New Wilmington. “Most of our furniture actually comes from Ohio because they’re set up for that and have a little bit more liberty than the Amish out here do.”
Even though Amish in the area aren’t quite what people from outside the area expect – Falotico notes that tourists from other parts of the United States, usually the South, are common visitors – the chance of seeing a horse-drawn buggy driving along the side of the road, or even going to a store like Crombie’s, is a sufficient draw.
“I think it’s hard for them to believe that there is a sect of people that don’t use cars, that don’t have TVs, that farm the land with horses. That’s a draw and an appeal for them. I think sometimes people wish they could go back to that time,” Crombie says.
Both Crombie and Rockenstein say most of their visitors come from within a two-hour radius. Falotico adds that many who visit Lawrence County have family in the area, the result of a once-booming population who dispersed as heavy industry waned.
“People come back for reunions and things like that,” Falotico says. “Generally, most family members try to schedule their visits around things like car shows or the fireworks festivals we have every July.”
Rockenstein sees two peak times of year at Volant Mills, in the summer when visitors from abroad are on vacation and then again during the holiday season when people return home or shop for gifts.
“This time of year into the holiday season is the peak of our business. It starts when the leaves turn because it’s a picturesque drive and then it goes into holiday season when we have winter events,” she says, adding that smaller stores such as those in Volant distinguish themselves from malls and department stores most can find closer to home.
“You can go in and out of stores looking at the displays and trying treats. It gives that warm and fuzzy feeling,” Rockenstein says. “People don’t have the disposable income that they had before but they still want something a little bit special. It doesn’t have to be expensive to be special. Sometimes it’s just a little something that draws emotion from people.”
Often, stores and restaurants refer customers to other locations. Crombie, whose store sits on the outskirts of New Wilmington, doesn’t hesitate to recommend elsewhere for tourists to stop and eat, either in town or nearby.
“I tell people, when they come to visit, ‘Hey, check out the tavern down the street,’ or something to try and promote these businesses,” he says. “We, as an area, can’t survive without people checking us out. We have to give them a reason to drive an hour.”
In Volant, Rockenstein provides brochures on local businesses and promotes self-guided tours through the borough. The recent addition of a wine trail – Volant Mill Winery is just down the street from the old gristmill – has started to draw in a younger crowd than what had become the norm.
“We try to promote other area small businesses. We have brochures for other places just up the road. We have to work together to jointly promote the area because we need each other to survive,” she says. “No one will survive as a stand-alone. You have to make it worth people’s time to make the drive to get here.”
Over the years, she notes, many small businesses have had to change their approach to attracting customers.
The change for Volant Mills is what Rockenstein refers to as “shoppertainment,” a fusion of shopping and entertainment. The mill hosts several events each season, including concerts, markets and other family events that adjust with the seasons.
The response to “shoppertainment” has been good, she says, and tourism is almost as strong as ever.
“It’s a beautiful state that’s wonderful for people to see. It draws people because it’s a good state that offers a lot of interesting things for people to see and do,” Rockenstein says. “I don’t think it’s going away even though we’ve had to figure how to get people out for the day or the weekend and still be able to keep the doors open.”
Copyright 2014 by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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