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Female business owners dominate the scene in Maplewood
(by Kara Krekeler - March 12, 2008)
On March 6, nearly 300 people stopped by the St. Louis Closet Company to pay tribute to the women-owned businesses of Maplewood.
The city, which boasts 156 women-owned or -managed businesses, hosted its second annual Women Making History event, with booths from dozens of those businesses, a keynote speech by the female co-founders of Sauce Magazine and plenty of camaraderie among women.
“It’s wonderful that so many people have come out to celebrate women,” said Maplewood Mayor Mark Langston, adding that the event doubled in size from last year. “This is the second year we’ve done this, and it’s nice to celebrate the success of women in our city.”
The event started last year after Maplewood’s Community Development Director Rachelle L’Ecuyer took note of the unique situation in Maplewood.
“When I first started working here, I realized that I was working with a whole bunch of women,” she said, adding that women-owned businesses account for more than a quarter of all businesses in the city.
Most of those businesses have started over the last five years or so, although some have been around much longer.
“We’ve got a number of women who have been in business a long time,” L’Ecuyer said, adding that she believes that the relatively low real-estate prices in Maplewood allowed more women to buy their own buildings in the central corridor. Later women-owned businesses have just added to the “diverse group of women business owners,” she said.
In business and owned by the same family for more than 100 years, Morgenthaler’s has been in Maplewood for almost 20 years. Fourth-generation owner Jeanne Morgenthaler Wolf said that she believes the specialty window-treatment cleaner and manufacturer is the oldest woman-owned business in the community.
“When my father retired in the 1980s, we built the building we’re in now,” said Wolf, who runs the business with her sister-in-law Cindy Morgenthaler. “We needed a bigger facility, and we felt Maplewood would be a good investment at the time. In 1989, Maplewood wasn’t what it is now, but we thought it was a good location for our business.”
Linda Pilcher, owner of Something Elegant Catering, cited the same reason when she purchased a building in 1992. She had previously been running her catering company out of a rented space in Richmond Heights, but after moving to Maplewood, she decided she wanted her business to follow close behind.
“I pretty much just looked around Maplewood,” she said. “This just seemed right.”
Other than some friends who ran a therapy office, Pilcher said she didn’t know any other female business owners in Maplewood, although she added that since she arrived before Maplewood began its a renaissance, there probably weren’t many to begin with.
Wolf agreed, saying that before she attended the planning meeting for this year’s Women Making History event, she had no idea how many Maplewood businesses are owned by women.
“I was pleasantly surprised,” she said. “It’s very positive to see” so many women owning businesses in such a small community.
Wolf speculated that the reason so many women have brought their businesses to Maplewood in recent years is a reflection of the growth the town has sustained over the past five years, which makes it a high-interest area that remains affordable for shop owners.
It’s certainly one of the reasons Linda Beck, owner of Flora Diva, moved her business to town.
A year ago, Beck moved her botanical décor studio and shop to 2708 Sutton Ave. after seven years in a studio in Clayton. Beck said she moved her studio to Maplewood because she liked the pedestrian-friendly vibe of the up-and-coming town, as well as the fact that it gave her the opportunity to have a storefront in addition to studio space.
She said that when she moved, she was aware of the fact that Maplewood is home to several businesses owned by women, adding that it was one of the factors she considered in her move.
“Being a woman-owned business, I noticed there are a lot of others here,” she said. “The environment is so supportive and creatively very inspiring.”
Langston said that Maplewood has gone out of its way to welcome new entrepreneurs, which he said he believes is one of the key reasons so many new businesses, particularly those owned by women, are popping up in Maplewood.
“The location helps a lot, and it is an affordable city as well,” he said. “We try to encourage people who are entrepreneurial and ready to enter into working long hours.”
He said it also helps that women are so well represented in the city government — two of the city’s council members, including the deputy mayor, are women, and Langston’s mayoral predecessor was also female.
But really, when it comes down to it, what attracts the women-owned businesses is “the good-looking mayor,” Langston joked.
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