Neighborhood Nest celebrates 20 years

ESSEX — If you happened past the Neighborhood Nest on Sunday, you may have noticed a heartening message scrawled across the chalkboard out front: "Happy first day of the next 20 years!" From Mother's Day to Columbus Day each year, The Neighborhood Nest has provided original art, antiques and eclectic treasures to the Essex community and visitors from the banks of Lake Champlain since 1995. To commemorate 20 years in business, on Saturday, Aug. 1, sole proprietor Barbara Page and family hosted an on-site party at which extended family, community residents and loyal patrons gathered beneath a giant pine tree to enjoy wine and refreshments while they shared their favorite memories of the aptly named Neighborhood Nest. The Nest is celebrated as one of few remaining bholdouts in the ever-changing town of Essex, serving as a community meeting place on a street which saw 33 businesses come and go since first opening its doors, including seven alone in the building next door, according Page's daughter Jill Piper. "This shop has become one of the treasures of the town," she said. "All towns evolve and have their own ebbs and flows, but it's definitely more quiet than it used to be here, and that makes customers more appreciative that we're still here. "It's like getting together with long lost friends each year" she continued. "They always ask the same question: 'How was the winter?'" But it's not only seasonal visitors to the area who consider the 1839 Lakeshore Road building a must-stop shop, as Piper said the community has been supportive over the years, stopping by to pick up gifts or just to chat. "People of all ages enjoy the shop," Piper said. "It's like a treasure hunt." The Neighborhood Nest began as a place for Page to sell her furniture and found-wood nature paintings and primitive antiques from the region, as well as from Quebec, Canada, where she lived at the time. Over the years the whole family began to bring and sell their art at the Nest, including Piper's siblings, nieces and nephews as young as two years old, she said. "It may sound silly, but everyone gets involved, no matter what age," she said. Even the balloons at the party were adorned with a twentieth anniversary logo designed by her ten-year old nephews — a bird hatching from a nest above the number 20. The shop and the family made and maintained Wee Gardens, which Piper called a "labor of love," have been featured in such publications as Adirondack Life and Country Living magazines, and continues to draw cowds from the surrounding region to convene at the shop year after year — even after closing time. "After the shop closes, we like to sit out front and bask in the sunshine, and people stop by and join us for a glass of wine and to relax," she said.

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Neighborhood Nest celebrates 20 years

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