RUMFORD — When Peggy Park was a child living in Mexico and working at her father’s grocery store, she had a dream to someday own a business on Congress Street.
Decades later, Park’s dream is close to being realized, though she’s had to overcome a series of obstacles to get there.
Park’s shop, sandwiched between the All That Jazz beauty salon and Ink Plaza, is named Home Again Girls, and she has tentative plans to open it at the beginning of February. The shop features homemade, found, and donated trinkets displayed throughout the building, along with many pieces of artwork hanging on the wall.
The road to Park’s business has been long.
“I grew up with retail in my blood, and I always liked getting to know people when they came in the store,” Park said Thursday while standing at the center of her new shop. “I also loved walking down Congress Street and seeing the different businesses there. It became my dream to someday have my own business on Congress Street.”
However, years passed and Park grew farther away from her retail roots. She moved to Florida for a year when she was 17, then moved back to Maine to take classes at the University of Maine, where she majored in law enforcement with a minor in sociology.
“I worked in the dining room of the University of Maine, lived in a boarding house and hitchhiked to work everyday,” Park said. “I took night classes and, after I graduated, I worked briefly with the Bangor Police Department as a juvenile officer.”
Park later worked with young offenders at a co-ed reform school for five years.
“I always liked the work I did as a social worker more than being a cop,” Park said.
Over the years, Park has worked as a social worker and as a geriatric specialist, with a focus on dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
“I’ve been blessed with awesome jobs and met some amazing people,” Park said.
After retiring and moving to Orwell, Vt., where she currently runs a bee farm with her husband, Park said she would occasionally visit Rumford for reunions or to see musical performances.
“Whenever I came here, I would walk up Congress Street and would get very sad,” Park said. “It just wasn’t the same as it used to be.”
In the early months of 2014, Park said she set up a store in a building on Main Street in Mexico that was open for about a month. It was across the street from Dick’s’ Restaurant and sold trinkets and artwork Park had accumulated over the years.
“It was very successful,” Park said. “It was only open for about a month, but it was quite lovely to have my own store back in the Rumford and Mexico area.”
A few months later, Park said Jim Rinaldo, who acts as a developer with the River Valley Growth Council, called her to say a building on Congress Street was up for rent.
“He knew that I was interested in that particular building,” Park said, “and when it became available, he called me and asked if I’d consider renting the building and help restart Congress Street.”
Park accepted, but in order to prepare the shop, she said, she had to frequently travel 4½ hours from Orwell to Rumford.
However, Park said the long drive from Vermont to Rumford doesn’t bother her.
“I absolutely love the drive,” Park said. “It’s so beautiful when you’re coming through the mountain ranges on Route 2, and you see the trees and the leaves changing colors. Everything appeals to me.”
Park originally set November 2014 as the opening date for her store, but after the water pipes in the building burst, she was forced to postpone.
As Park continues to organize her store, she said she’s still figuring out the specifics of how the business will be run.
“Since I live so far away, I’m still not sure if I’m going to be open five days a week, or three days a week,” Park said. “I have some friends who have offered to step up and work behind the cash register, but I’m still figuring it out right now.”
For Park, money is not the primary goal in starting the shop. Instead, Park hopes she can help breathe new life into a section of town that has long laid dormant.
“I’m not expecting to make any serious money off of this,” Park said, “but I think it could be the beginning of getting things going again on Congress Street.”
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