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The Apothecary opens its doors with ribbon cutting

LOCK HAVEN -- Embracing the magic of Friday the 13th, Lock Haven welcomed The Apothecary, a new hotspot for those seeking witchy homegoods and artisanal crafts, with a lively grand opening ceremony.

The Apothecary’s downtown grand opening drew a warm crowd of long-time customers, family and friends. Guests savored refreshments, browsed the shop's fresh inventory of witchy goods, and witnessed owner Frankie Butler cut the ceremonial ribbon to inaugurate the new store.

"Ever since she became a part of Main Street, she’s provided an energy and creative ideas that other businesses are starting to catch on. Her enthusiasm is contagious. I think we all can agree coming into The Apothecary, it definitely is not just a store, but it’s an experience. It just feels good being here," said Melissa Dally, manager of Downtown Lock Haven, Inc. who was there supporting the grand opening.

"It’s important for us to support our businesses. They put a lot of energy, a lot of time into it. It’s a risk. It can be stressful. And so, I think just as a community member in general it's important to show our support. Our downtown wouldn't be thriving without our businesses," Dally added.

Dally was joined by Mayor Joel Long who thanked Butler for choosing to invest in Lock Haven and bringing something different to the community.

Though The Apothecary just opened its downtown doors on July 6, she has been running the shop in various forms since September 2021.

The inception of The Apothecary can be traced back to a period of boredom Frankie faced while living in New Jersey, where she and her mother, Jeane Vogel, started creating custom crafts like personalized towels with their Cricut machine.

After attending a few craft fairs, the hobby quickly snowballed, leading Frankie to expand her offerings to include handmade soaps, shampoos, tea blends and herb bundles as her business began to take shape.

"I make 90 percent of everything out there by hand. I’ve gotten very into the holistics and the spiritual aspect of the whole thing as well," Butler said. "The holistics go hand in hand with the metaphysical stuff so it just kind of kept growing."

Frankie says she owes a lot of her success to her family.

"My mom is the one who helped me get this set up. My mom was my backbone with this whole thing. She really helped me get the ball rolling on it and my uncle helped me get it to Lock Haven," Butler said. Her uncle James Tomaini, owner of Tomaini’s Garage, helped make the move to the new location happen.

Her mother, who was in attendance with her father, beamed with pride in her daughter during the ceremony.

Before moving into her current location, Butler ran The Apothecary from her grandparents’ carriage house in Mackeyville, using the pop-up format to build her customer base.

"I wouldn’t be here without the customers that I had there, because they moved with me and everything and I have as many old faces in here as I do new faces and I just I am so appreciative of all of them. I really am," the owner said.

The ribbon-cutting saw the attendance of early supporters, such as Karen Miller of Mill Hall, who has been with The Apothecary since its pop-up store days.

"There's so many different things in here and I just like the atmosphere and that its somewhere different to shop at," Miller said. "I'm so happy she's downtown here now, and they're all so kind here."

On Oct. 5, The Apothecary will host its first-ever Moonlight Market downtown, bringing together an eclectic group of vendors offering a variety of holistic and metaphysical goods.

"We’re bringing it mainstream now. We’re in town. So it’s either going to go really good or really sideways on me. I hope it goes well and I really hope that the other merchants on the street benefit from it too," said Butler.

So far, Leo’s Italian & Specialty Food and Main Street Books have both committed to participating.

"I really hope that this market coming downtown really helps the community get involved," she said.