Tanner’s Alley celebrates 50 years
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After 50 years, three locations and one owner, Tanner’s Alley Leather Design Studio was celebrated by Morgantown Area Partnership and the downtown Morgantown community Thursday afternoon.
During a ribbon-cutting ceremony, Cam Allen of the Partnership described proprietor Charlie McEwuen as “a bulwark of the community. … He’s an inspiration” to others in downtown Morgantown.
McEwuen thanked those in attendance and noted changes in the retail environment over the past five decades.
“The one thing that has stayed the same through all that time is the community support for my business,” McEwuen said. “I wouldn’t be here without community support.”
Amazed and humbled, McEwuen said he will continue to have a “commitment to provide the best quality service and best leather goods we possibly can. As long as the community keeps supporting me, we’ll keep doing what we’re doing.”
Morgantown Mayor Danielle Trumble presented a proclamation to Tanner’s Alley for becoming “a longstanding part of the district’s small business community while remaining committed to local production in the tradition of handmade leather work.”
The proclamation didn’t just praise McEwuen’s business, but also the leather designer and artisan himself.
Trumble read that McEwuen has “demonstrated a continued dedication to fostering a vibrant and prosperous downtown Morgantown through his leadership, civic engagement and unwavering support of the community.”
According to McEwuen, Tanner’s Alley derived its name from its original location in the 200 block of Walnut Street, a roughly 6-foot-wide storefront that was a narrow alleyway where a property owner added a roof and front and back walls to create a tiny retail space. His business opened in 1976 and was only there a short while until it landed on Spruce Street for about 10 years. The leather studio has been at its current location at 416 High St. since the late 1980s.