Gravity Group is a full-service marketing agency located in Harrisonburg (107 E Water Street) that creates specialty branding to grow individual businesses and bring them more clientele. I had the privilege to sit down with Steve Gilman, President and Brand Strategist, and Lindsey Laughlin, Vice President and Marketing Strategist, to ask them more about Gravity and their time in Harrisonburg. more
One of the many great things about Harrisonburg is all the history. The downtown area alone is home to 100+ contributing historic structures, earning it its national historic district designation. In celebration of Veterans Day, we’re highlighting one historic structure in particular. more
Meet Berenice Rodriguez of El Paisano Bakery, "If you’ve never been to El Paisano Bakery, you’re missing out." more
Meet Kara Miller, Executive Director of Ten Thousand Villages in Downtown Harrisonburg. more
Intern Kate's Main Street America Instagram Takeover Recap more
Even during the pandemic, the friendly city of Harrisonburg has seen several stores open and flourish, one of which being Mary Yoder’s Dart Resale and Trade store located on South Liberty Street. Downtown, one can find a few secondhand clothing stores, but Dart is the first to really take off with the buy-sell-trade system Yoder utilizes. more
The Perch, formerly known as “The Hub,” is a co-working space above Magpie Diner where entrepreneurs and organizations come together to spark new ideas and concepts. An entrepreneur herself, Kirsten Moore, founder and owner of The Perch, is a Harrisonburg native who’s always had knowledge of what can best serve a community. She began The Hub about five years ago, after seeing how similar spaces were working in Richmond, Virginia. more
By Kathleen Shaw / Header photo courtesy of Kathleen Shaw — While studying in Nepal, a young Rameshwari “Rama” Shrestha first heard whispers about Shyam “John” Shrestha through her teacher, his cousin. In quick time, their parents met and discussed a potential union. Before ever meeting, the two were bound for marriage in the country’s capital of Kathmandu and wed after a handful of phone conversations. more
Some friends get together to drink a beer on the porch, go fishing in a nearby pond, play wiffle ball in the backyard, or grab a bite to eat — and some friends get together with 50 pounds of green coffee beans they’ve collectively purchased and try their hand at roasting coffee one pound at a time, because why not? This kind of ingenuity seems to be a hallmark of this town. So many fantastic ideas hatched at dusk in someone’s backyard while fireflies flash and kids with training wheels roll down the sidewalk. This was the case for cousins Darryl and Charles Matthews and their coworkers Emily and Larisa Martin, who now own Merge Coffee Company, on a typical Sunday night. After several weekly attempts at roasting, they refined their skills enough that their acquaintances were requesting bags of coffee for their own consumption. And for a year, these four friends sold their coffee online, roasting a small batch every Sunday in their garage and shipping orders every Monday. more