TRYON – The newly renovated Missildine’s project is now open for business, with three tenants occupying the three buildings across from Morris the Horse on Trade Street.

In addition to The Nest Artisan Market, owned by Ashley Menetre, and Black Coffee owned by Adam Marcello, Julia Calhoun has opened her own chocolate shop, Carolina Confections, as part of a market that will also feature Tryon Toymakers and Mills Mosseller Studio.

Calhoun talked about her business and why she felt she needed to bring Mills Mosseller Studio and Tryon Toymakers back to downtown Tryon.

“I’m a native of Tryon, and I’m very conscious of Tryon’s history as it’s always been fascinating to me,” Calhoun said. “When I moved back to town about four years ago, one of the things that struck me was that I felt that Tryon’s economic health depends, to some degree, on bringing back some of the things that made it well-known in the first place.”

Calhoun said she wanted the rug studio and Tryon Toymakers to be in house in the Missildine’s project because she is interested in carrying these businesses forward.

“Ron Mosseller of Mills Mosseller Rug Studio is the only man in the country who has made large rugs entirely by hand, and I’ve actually worked with him quite a bit a few years ago,” Calhoun explained. “He closed his shop in 2007, and I just couldn’t stand the thought of it disappearing and none of his family was interested in carrying it on. His mom had started it in 1925, and they were nationally well known.”

Rugs from the Mosseller Studio have been featured in a number of historic sites and museums in the U.S., according to Calhoun, including the Smithsonian, the North Carolina Governor’s Mansion and the Virginia Governor’s Mansion.

“We were talking and I asked him if he minded if I carried the business on, and he liked the idea,” Calhoun said. “That’s how this started. When my husband passed away five years ago, I was already homesick for Tryon and when I had the opportunity I moved back and I have been back for about four years.”

Chuck Hearon with Tryon Toymakers came into contact with Calhoun next and when he heard about the Mills-Mosseller Studio going out of business, he said he felt the same way about the Toymakers. He asked me if I would be interested in carrying that on, Calhoun said.

“Eleanor Vance and Charlotte Yale started the business in 1915. They were at Biltmore and they were brought down by George Vanderbilt when the Vanderbilts saw there was so much native talent in terms of their craft. They wanted to find a way to train kids so that had an alternative to just working on the farm or in the mill. Miss Vance and Miss Yale moved down to Tryon after Vanderbilt died and started Tryon Toymakers and they were initially much more famous for their furniture making and woodcarving than anything.”

Calhoun said the business, which was originally known as Tryon Toymakers and Wood Carvers, was started during the time of WWI where toys came out of the Tyrol in Germany, which was “mechanized” for war in 1915. According to Calhoun, Vance and Yale started the toy company here for this reason as well as to find the best life for children living in that era.

“They sold the business in 1949 to a wonderful man named Moss Guilbert and Moss was only interested in carrying on the toys,” Calhoun said. “Moss sold it to Chuck Hearon in about 1978, and Chuck and his wife got a space downtown on Trade Street and did the toys until the mid-90s. They were hugely popular and inundated with orders. After 20 years, that was enough since they did all the work themselves primarily.”

Calhoun’s business, Carolina Confections, features more than 10 varieties of European style chocolates including the unique chocolate covered gummy bears. She said she added this business to the market because she thought downtown Tryon needed a chocolate shop. While in Hillsboro, N.C., Calhoun said she had a bookstore that included a chocolate shop.

“I had one in my bookstore in Hillsboro and it was a huge success,” Calhoun said. “I buy from 10 or more very small, family owned companies that do European-style chocolates. Everything is done by hand, and it’s a big variety of things from moderately priced things to some really fancy stuff. We’ll also have stuff for kids like stick candy, and my fanciest chocolatier, which I find very humorous, is the one who makes chocolate covered gummy bears.”

Carol Lynn Jackson of Manna Cabanna in Saluda will also be featured as one of the vendors in the Missildine’s market at a later date. The market had a soft opening October 8.