"It's an asset for downtown," Diane Frankenberger told the Summerville Journal Scene this summer, after she sold her building at 129 W. Richardson Ave. to the Public Works Art Center next door.

Frankenberger has owned the building since 1989, and you probably know it as People, Places & Quilts. Older residents may still call it Cauthen's. Public Works is building the new space around artisans who make handcrafted goods to sell, the quilt shop is staying, and the 1919 cash registers are going back on the floor. For more than a century this has been a building where you walk in and buy something, and it will stay that way.

A hardware store, then a quilt shop, now maker studios

The building has stood on West Richardson since 1913. In its best-known early years it was Cauthen's Hardware, owned by Elmore and Lila Gray Cauthen. Frankenberger turned it into a folk art and antiques shop called People, Places and Quilts, which opened officially in 1990. Fabric came later and made the shop the quilting stop it is today.

Public Works opened at 135 W. Richardson in 2020 as a free public art museum. By this year, the artists in residence who rent studio space downstairs had outgrown that building. The organization now calls the two buildings the Public Works Arts Campus, and it has given each one a separate job. What's Up Summerville reports that 135 keeps the galleries, classrooms and artist studios. The space at 129 is being built out as artisan studios for makers who create handcrafted goods for sale.

The difference matters on an ordinary walk downtown. Galleries are places you look. A building full of working makers with goods for sale works more like the hardware store and fabric shop that came before it.

The quilt shop stays

Selling a building often means the shop inside it leaves. This sale was set up so that People, Places & Quilts stays.

The Journal Scene reported that Frankenberger first offered the building to Public Works in December 2024. After several conversations, she decided to keep running her business there in a smaller space. She sold the building for $800,000, which the paper described as "far below market value." Public Works has since confirmed publicly that the shop will stay open inside the building, which has been its home for 36 years.

The arrangement keeps a fabric counter and a group of new maker studios under one 1913 roof. It also keeps the art center's sewing classes one door from a shop that sells fabric. The calendar later in this post shows how often those classes meet.

Cash registers from 1919, and floors from 1913

The renovation keeps the building's past in view. The Journal Scene reported that the Public Works team has left much of the original wood and brick in place or reused it. Cash registers from 1919 and other pieces from the building's history will return as a small museum. Frankenberger gave the center newspaper clippings from the Cauthen years, plus the Journal Scene article about her own purchase of the building. CEO Jana Riley said both will be framed and hung. The original 1913 floors were covered during construction to protect them.

Along with the maker studios and the museum corner, the announced plan includes:

• A free community art table, sponsored this year by the Junior Service League of Summerville
• A music, performance and gathering room, developed with Community Music Collective
• A resource area for the South Carolina Arts Commission's Lowcountry Arts Hub, serving artists, art teachers and arts organizations across 10 counties

The hub designation reaches well beyond Summerville. The South Carolina Arts Commission's Lowcountry hub page names Public Works Art Center as its partner and lists 135 W. Richardson Ave. as the Hub Office. The Journal Scene reported that Public Works is the first arts hub in the Lowcountry region. That puts the office serving all 10 counties within walking distance of Hutchinson Square.

What the project costs

Public Works started a $4 million capital campaign to cover the rest of the mortgage on its current building, the land purchase, and repairs and renovation next door. In the first seven months it raised $615,276 from grants, individual pledges and smaller gifts. That is a little over 15 percent of the goal, and the campaign is set up in stages. So the opening this fall is a first step, and fundraising for the rest continues.

The project has also come before the town. At a special Town Council meeting on January 28, Riley asked for $500,000 in hospitality or accommodations tax money for renovation and repairs to what the meeting minutes called the "old Cauthen's building."

The opening date is still a range

The two reports give slightly different targets. The Journal Scene expected the public to be welcomed into the renovated space in late October. What's Up Summerville's update from September 1 said Public Works hoped to open in early November and noted the date could move earlier or later. For the confirmed date, check the Public Works Art Center website before you go.

You don't have to wait for the new building to use the campus. The main gallery is free and open Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. It closes on federal holidays.

The block's calendar through mid-November

The next month on West Richardson are already scheduled, and the new building may open in the middle of them.

SPARK closes on Saturday, Nov. 14, and no later exhibition is listed yet on Public Works' exhibitions page. That makes the Friday open mic the last evening program on the center's calendar before the show comes down.

The Summerville Italian Feast describes Italian food from more than 100 vendors and food trucks, plus wine and beer, with proceeds going to the Dorchester Two Educational Foundation.

Third Thursday adds entertainment and craft and artisan vendors to the square, and local shops, boutiques and restaurants stay open late. People, Places & Quilts is one of those shops. Its own site lists weekday hours of 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Third Thursdays until 8 p.m. Those listings are older, so call ahead if you plan a trip around them.

Public Works' recurring classes and clubs show why a fabric shop next door is a good fit:

• Sewing with Kym meets on Tuesdays, listed through Dec. 29
• Hand Sewing Club meets on the third Tuesday of each month
• Sound Bath Meditation is monthly on Tuesdays, listed through Dec. 15
• Gallery Yoga is listed through February
• Sewing for Homeschoolers runs on Tuesdays through Nov. 10

The December calendar already lists more pottery, homeschool art and after-school art classes.

A longtime restaurant moved into a new building this fall

The Cauthen's building isn't the only Summerville fixture to start a new chapter this season. Myles and Jun Yakitori started with three tables and has been a Summerville restaurant for 31 years. The Post and Courier reported that it served its last day on Bacons Bridge Road on Sept. 19. The family reopened in a newly built space at 212 W. Fourth North St. on Sept. 23. If you used to drive out to Bacons Bridge for it, the restaurant is now on a downtown street grid. Dinner there pairs easily with an evening on the square.

A 31-year restaurant took a new building and kept its name. A 113-year-old storefront took on new tenants and kept its shop. When the doors at 129 W. Richardson open, the quilt shop will still be there, the old registers will be back on display, and the studios around them will belong to makers selling their work.

If you have shopped at People, Places & Quilts for years, or remember the building as Cauthen's, the Angela Miller Team would love to hear what you remember about it. When the Arts Campus sets its opening date, we'll pass it along. If you're curious how changes like this one affect your corner of the Historic District, ask us for a free home valuation and neighborhood guide.