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A vintage return
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Thomas Diggins, who opened Hootenanny Vintage Guitars at 14 N. Phelps St. in downtown Youngstown in 2009 but closed it in 2011 due to family issues, plans to reopen the store in March after Youngstown State University students return from spring break. Diggins is a professor of evolution and ecology at YSU.
YOUNGSTOWN
The empty window display of Hootenanny Vintage Guitars downtown soon will be filled again for the first time since the store was closed about four years ago.
Thomas Diggins remembers how downtown was when he opened the guitar shop at 14 N. Phelps St. at the Federal Building in 2009.
“It was pretty dead down here five years ago,” he said. “When I first came here, there were no apartments in downtown.”
Diggins, professor of evolution and ecology at Youngstown State University, closed the store in 2011 due to family issues. But he continued to rent the 400-square-foot store.
As time passed, he noticed the new restaurants and businesses that were taking root in downtown over the past couple of years. He said the revival is due to developers such as the Gatta Group, which purchased the Federal Building in 2009.
“A lot of these landlords make stuff happen,” he said.
The Gatta Group renovated the four-story building to include apartments on the upper three floors and the addition of V2 Wine Bar Trattoria. The Federal Building also hosts retail shops such as Madeline’s Alterations, and Youngstown Nation.
Dominic Gatta III, owner of the Gatta Group, said a lot of people inquired about the store’s availability when it was inactive.
“I’m definitely happy that he’s opening it back up,” he said. “It just gets more people downtown.”
The guitar shop is set to reopen in March after YSU students return from spring break, Diggins said.
The store would be open from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
The Internet is the primary platform for selling vintage guitars as it has been for other niche markets. Diggins said he expects the store to bring in about 5 percent of the profits.
The Internet also is where the YSU professor started the business. He played music in graduate school at the State University of New York at Buffalo in the 1990s. Diggins also collected and restored vintage guitars. In 1998 he started selling them through websites such as eBay.
On average, he was selling a couple of guitars per month with prices ranging from $100 to $2,500, he said.
After closing the store, Diggins continued selling vintage guitars online.
While reopening the store would come with some financial benefits, Diggins is doing it for symbolic reasons.
“It’s kind of neat to have that musicians’ scene,” he said.
“Hootenanny” is a term for an informal folk gathering, Diggins said. That’s something he wants to accomplish with customers playing the guitars in a relaxed atmosphere at the store.
Overall, Diggins wants to be a part of developing a musician scene in downtown.
“That’s what I want,” he said.
Other business owners at the Federal Building welcome the shop’s return.
“It’s good to see anything active in downtown,” said Phil Kidd, owner of Youngstown Nation.
Kidd said the store is unique for downtown and the Mahoning Valley.
“That’s the thing downtown needs,” he said.