CHAMPLAIN — When Janet McFetridge told her husband, Clarke Herdic, she was going to keep and save the old building they bought in the Village of Champlain years before, his eyes lit up.
“He was pretty ill by then, and he’s like, ‘You’re gonna save it? You’re gonna save it?’ He was so excited about that,” McFetridge said.
Four years before that conversation, in 2017, McFetridge and Herdic had decided to rescue a historic building that sat vacant in the village for many years.
Local residents may know the building, located at 11171 Route 9 in Champlain, as the former Falcon Drug Store, which closed around 60-70 years ago but was built in the 1800s.
McFetridge said her husband had fallen in love with the building and the idea of saving and restoring it.
Because of their shared love of history, combined with the building’s close proximity to the Champlain Meeting House, she agreed that buying it would be a fun idea.
“It was like one of those journeys that you don’t even know you’re in until you’re along the road.”
‘FIVE-YEAR PROJECT’
However, neither of them knew what they were going to do with the building after acquiring it.
“We had no discussion about what the use of the building could be,” McFetridge said.
“Clarke and I jokingly said it was a five-year project, and then every year after, we said it was a five-year project. We didn’t want to count down those years.”
But, in no time, they had gotten to work.
Herdic, who loved anything construction, gutted the place himself, taking out the original floor, replacing it and installing the basement and first floor wall studs.
“He did everything by himself.”
KEEPING THE PROMISE
Then, in 2021, Herdic passed away, leaving the direction of the project entirely in McFetridge’s hands.
While still unsure of what the place could be, McFetridge, making good on her promise to save their project, hired construction companies to complete the restoration and keep the character of the building intact.
It wasn’t long before she decided a coffee and bookshop — dubbed Red Canoe Coffee and Books — would be a great addition to Champlain.
“The village doesn’t have much down here and my goal all along has been to try to get some small businesses in here,” she said.
“The little shop, What’s In Store, opened a couple months ago. It’s wonderful. There’s another woman who’s opening an art gallery soon and this will just be one of the little pieces that people want to see here.”
GRAND OPENING
Red Canoe Coffee and Books will officially have its grand opening today, with a ribbon cutting ceremony scheduled for 9 a.m. Following that, the business will continue the celebration until 4 p.m.
From then on, the hours of operation will be fluid, McFetridge said.
In terms of how busy the business will be, she doesn’t know what to expect. With time, she hopes the community will also give her feedback on what works best for them.
For now, during weekdays, she’ll be open in the morning hours with the possibility of reopening later in the day as well. On Saturdays, she expects to be open all day, but that could change as well.
“It’s flexible,” she said.
Beyond any possible technical issues that may arise, McFetridge said she is feeling mostly excited about the opening day.
“I’m very excited to see people. I love to interact with people … I think they’re really, really going to be happy that it turned out the way it did and that I was able to keep a little bit of the old woodwork.”
COFFEE AND BOOKS
In the back of Red Canoe Coffee and Books, where the coffee shop is, the usual hot beverages like coffee, tea, and hot chocolate will be on the menu, along with cold drinks like sodas. Small pastries like muffins and cookies will be available as well.
In the front of the business is a used bookstore, where patrons can browse donated books of all genres.
In that sense, the building has come full circle for some.
Since the restoration neared the end stages, McFetridge said she has heard from a lot of people who came to this building as children when it was still the drug store.
“A woman came in just days ago and she said ‘oh, it’s beautiful.’ She said I used to sit here when I was a little girl on that window seat and look at the books. Apparently, he must have had books too.”
NAME ORIGIN
With paintings of red canoes adorning several walls, it won’t take long for those who visit Red Canoe Coffee and Books, either today or in the future, to see the significance in the name of the place.
“We’re right on the river,” she said. “The river is the heart of the village. and it has been economically for a couple 100 years.”
“Also my husband and I had a red canoe — I still have a red canoe — and that was something that we enjoyed doing.”
‘EVERY STEP’
The building still needs some landscaping and facade work done, but McFetridge said in terms of the interior, she is “really happy” with how it came out.
And though he wasn’t there to see it finished, McFetridge believes Herdic had an influence on how the building turned out.
“Everyone tells me he has been with me every step of the way,” she said, looking at a picture on the wall of Herdic when he was working on the building.
“So maybe he planted some ideas. I don’t know.”
IMPACT
Local Champlain resident, Jen Mallory, who moved back to the area a few years ago and was surprised to see it had become a “ghost town,” said she was excited to see McFetridge’s business finally open. She will be opening an art studio in the coming months there, she said.
Mallory said the village needs more businesses in order to be restored to its former glory of being a destination place and take back its “spark,” which she believes McFetridge is working toward.
“The village has a big heart and it goes in cycles. Right now, we’re in a clean slate cycle like not much going on, but this lady here, she’s found all the little sparks,” Mallory said.
“She has single-handedly been a leader finding these little sparks to unite the heart and the village again.”
McFetridge, who is also the Village of Champlain mayor, said she hopes she can inspire more people to start a business there and help build the area back up.
She said over the years, Champlain was hit by several floods and fires that took out many buildings and trees, which has required the village to find a new identity for what it wants to become.
McFetridge believes they are in the process of doing that.
“It’s little steps at a time.”