©2006 The Chestnut Hill Local

Women’s Exchange will close for good Lack of volunteers cited in decision
by KRISTIN PAZULSKI

The Women’s Exchange in Chestnut Hill will close its doors forever on Saturday, July 22. Located in the Chestnut Hill Community Centre at 8419 Germantown Ave., the Women’s Exchange has been run by the centre’s board for at least 35 years.

The Women’s Exchange movement began in 1832 in Philadelphia on Seventh Avenue between Arch and Race Streets, according to Kathleen Waters Sander’s book The Business of Charity: The Woman’s Exchange Movement, 1832-1900. The Women’s Exchange allowed women whose families and wealth had fallen to earn some income without having to get a job in business or industry. It offered “a way to save face while making money,” Sander wrote.

The date of establishment for the Chestnut Hill’s Women’s Exchange is disputed among board members, but a timeline in the board’s records indicates the board’s kitchen and craft business was given its current name in 1971.

In 1932, the kitchen was used with the back garden to provide canned products for school lunches, according to the timeline. Originally, the exchange’s kitchen was located in the front of the Community Centre, and in 1981, it was moved to the rear. At the same time, the Exchange’s craft business, now run independently under the name “The Happy Butterfly,” separated from the kitchen business.

In the beginning of the Exchange, the kitchen accepted goodies and entrees from individual bakers and chefs to independently-run businesses. Baked goods, tea sandwiches, small entrees and numerous cakes are still available daily, and special orders are taken for parties and gatherings.

Mark and Dale Kuehner have sold more than a half-million tea sandwiches over a five-year period through the Women’s Exchange. Dale said her husband, a retired chemist, was so “accurate” with each sandwich that he would weigh each one to ensure they all looked exactly alike. The Kuehner’s have been working with the Exchange since 1993 and sold everything from shortbread and sugar cookies to scones, deviled eggs and, of course, the tea sandwiches. A few years ago they cut down their work with the exchange, but they still sell their tea sandwiches in small boxes there.

“It’s not processed food [at the Exchange]. It’s all homemade goods,” Dale Kuehner said.

But. according to board members Sandy Drinker and Sally Hargsheimer, about 10 years ago (again, date is disputed), the Health Department inspected the Exchange and said for the kitchen to follow the health code, the food sold could only be made in licensed kitchens. The individual women who were baking and cooking for the Exchange at that time were no longer able to contribute unless they transformed their kitchen to fall within the licensed standards, which only one vendor was able to do. Drinker said this loss eventually was a contributing factor to the Exchange’s permanent closing this month.

“It’s a sign of the times,” said former Exchange manager Mary Anne Sage.

Along with the decrease in available vendors and the declining income from the Exchange’s products, a large factor in the kitchen’s closing was a lack of volunteers. Hargsheimer said each board member was required to put in three-and-a-half hours every other week in the kitchen. She brought friends in to volunteer, but it wasn’t enough. Many of the volunteers were getting older, and younger volunteers were hard to come by. “We thought it was time to give it up,” said Hargesheimer.

The board ensured that the Community Centre, which houses numerous professional offices, The Happy Butterfly, Bird-in-Hand and a conference room, will remain the same. And the board has voted to rent the soon-to-be-former Women’s Exchange space to Drake’s Gourmet Foods and Catering, currently located in the Flourtown Farmers Market.

Drake’s sells food from “all over the world,” said chef and owner Carl Drake, including recipes from China, France, Japan, Germany and more. His menu at the farmer’s market changes weekly, often times bending to customers’ requests, “If a customer comes in and says they haven’t had [a certain entrée] in a while, I’ll include it in next week’s menu,” Drake said.

“I’m going to try to keep the change as smooth and little as possible,” Drake said. He plans to open for business in Chestnut Hill in September or October.

As for the Exchange’s vendors, Drake said he is willing to keep some people if they make products that he does not, but some of them already have other business lined up or were planning to lessen their workload anyway. Jan Sheldon, who makes products from fruit tarts and lemon bars to chicken pot pies and hors d’oeuvres for the Exchange, said other businesses she works with “kind of got a light in their eyes” when she said she would be able to devote more time to them. “I’ll miss the exchange but I understand the guy coming in is going to do great things,” Sheldon said.

“The funny part is, this one I’ll miss more than many because, the women who work there, I’ve been friends with for many years,” said John Rothschild, who has been making brownies for the Women’s Exchange out of his West Philadelphia kitchen for 17 years. “They are wonderful people to do business with.”

Contact staff writer Kristin Pazulski at 215-248-8819 or kristin@chestnuthilllocal.com.