GLOUSTER, Ohio — Dilapidated buildings sit along High Street in uptown Glouster. But public, nonprofit and private organizations are all working to change that and bring businesses, housing and social services into the village, with two major nonprofit-led renovations underway uptown.
Behind many of the efforts in Glouster is the Glouster Revitalization Organization, a brainchild of Trimble Township residents who, in 2017, came together to to discuss, in part, redeveloping uptown Glouster. The next year, the group identified two projects they’d like to see happen: a new uptown park and the renovation of the village’s historic Knights of Pythias building.
Glouster Revitalization Organization completed Sedalia Crossing Park as “kind of our training wheel project,” said Glouster Revitalization Organization board president Jane Cavarozzi. The park features a mural by Passion Works Studio artists, and it previously hosted monthly events, currently on hold until next year.
Cavarozzi, who owns Dirty Girl Coffee in Glouster, told the Independent she believes Glouster can take advantage of outdoor recreation and tourism to create “small businesses throughout and a booming uptown.”
“We’d really like to position this town as a hub for all the rec resources going on around here,” Cavarozzi said.
Situated between various trailheads, including the Baileys Trail System, Burr Oak State Park and other nearby outdoor recreation opportunities, “We’re just perfectly positioned to be that place where people can stop for lunch, grab some souvenirs, things like that,” Cavarozzi said.
Glouster Mayor Nathan Simons agreed and said Glouster has often been “overlooked” in considerations of the opportunities outdoor recreation and its associated tourism can bring to Athens County.
“That momentum and potential — that’s here — and a lot of that is based on location,” Simons said.
That potential has been a bit tricky to realize at Cavarozzi’s own business.
Dirty Girl Coffee has a recently-renovated storefront at 82 High St. that opened last year. Cavarozzi is currently preparing to open the building’s second floor (and Glouster’s first rooftop deck) to customers.
But Cavarozzi said business has been slow, and that the storefront is subsidized by Dirty Girl’s wholesale and e-commerce arms.
“We have signs up communicating to our customers in our community that if they don’t buy from us, we won’t have a storefront,” Cavarozzi said. “The storefront takes out most of our labor because we have to be open. We have to cover at certain hours. So if there’s no customers in here, we’re not getting money coming in.”
She sees promise, however, in the current renovations ongoing on High Street.
“Once we get things at capacity, it’s gonna really drive traffic,” she said. “The more businesses we have, the more we’re going to get [of] that. If you look, the volume of traffic that goes by is very consistent. We just have to give them a reason to stop.”
Glouster Revitalization Organization’s renovation of Glouster’s former Knights of Pythias lodge — a three-story, 9,000 square foot building constructed in the early 20th century — should substantially expand the number of businesses in town.
The renovation project is supported by a subcontract through the Survivor Advocacy Outreach Program’s Appalachian Community Grant, and also received funding from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Mineral Resources Management’s Abandoned Mine Land Revitalization program.
The AMLER program is designed to support communities affected by the departure of the coal mining economy.
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources held a groundbreaking at the Knights of Pythias building, located at 106 High St., earlier this summer. Cavarozzi said renovations are expected to be complete by spring 2026.
As part of its participation in the AMLER program, Glouster Revitalization Organization is working to preserve as much of the Knights of Pythias building’s historical structure as possible throughout that process.
The project was also supported by grants from the Athens County Foundation and Ohio’s Finance Fund, Cavarozzi said.
Glouster Revitalization Organization is creating space for four to six food-based businesses, including a market for fresh food, on the building’s first floor. The businesses will utilize a shared kitchen.
Meanwhile, the building’s second floor will feature a remote work center and community co-working space. The third floor will feature a banquet hall, where Cavarozzi said she envisions large community events taking place, as well as private events such as weddings.
“The only thing wrong with this town [is that] coal left,” said Cavarozzi. “If we can bring back economic opportunity, some workforce development training, take away some of the pinch for initial investment for a business, bring in third-party job providers … that would be really good.”
Adam Kody, director of operations for the Appalachian Center for Economic Networks, said ACEnet advised the Glouster Revitalization Organization on the design of the building’s shared commercial kitchen based on ACEnet’s experience operating such a facility.
Cavarozzi said Glouster Revitalization Organization is also collaborating with the Survivor Advocacy Outreach Program on workforce development. The relationship with the two entities is particularly important because SAOP is renovating its own building directly across the street.
SAOP Executive Director Madison Trace said the building will host the organization’s local New Leaf facility, which will operate similarly to SAOP’s existing New Leaf program in Nelsonville. New Leaf offers SAOP clients workforce training and experience, supportive services such as counseling, and free, long-term housing managed by SAOP.
SAOP’s building renovation on High Street in Glouster is funded by a Community Development Block Grant, administered by Hocking Athens Perry Community Action.
The building “will be home to new office space, spaces for our workforce development, supported employment opportunities, and it will have three separate apartment units in it,” Trace said. Currently, contractors are working on the building’s dry wall finishes, and Trace expects the renovation to be completed this fall.
Unlike at its Nelsonville location, Glouster’s New Leaf program won’t feature a coffee shop business, to avoid competing with Dirty Girl.
SAOP recently began collaborating with ACEnet on its supported employment opportunities, Trace said. Kody said ACEnet also graduated five SAOP clients from a food safety certification program in June. Four SAOP clients are currently engaged in workplace opportunities through ACEnet, said Trace.
Additionally, both Trace and Cavarozzi envision a relationship in which SAOP clients might work directly across the street at the Knights of Pythias building.
“Those details haven’t been finalized,” Trace said. But for now, “it’s just nice to have two major buildings being renovated in town,” she added.
Next door to the SAOP building on High Street sit old buildings owned by the Athens County Land Bank.
“We’ve been doing stuff [in Glouster] for many years now,” said Athens County Commissioner Chris Chmiel, who sits on the board of the land bank. “A lot of the residential parcels — sometimes we tear the buildings down, sometimes we’re able to renovate them, and get them back onto the tax rolls. But the biggest challenge, for sure, is those downtown buildings.”
Chmiel said the downtown buildings are major, expensive projects — all the more so because the land bank doesn’t want to tear them down.
“We’re trying to hold on to the heritage and stuff,” Chmiel said. “I hate tearing down old buildings when we don’t have to.”
An additional challenge is finding end-users for the buildings after they’re renovated. However, like with Glouster Revitalization Organization’s work with the Knights of Pythias building, the land bank’s work on its properties will reduce the burden for future businesses.
“We’re trying to get done things that would be sort of generic for whoever gets it, just to reduce the future cost of renovations and stuff,” Chmiel said.
Like the Athens County Land Bank, Glouster Revitalization Organization and SAOP are also leading developments in Glouster beyond its uptown, too. In addition to the Knights of Pythias renovation project, the $2.8 million AMLER funding for Glouster’s revitalization supports development at the Glouster Memorial Park further south.
“That funding will be used to put all new playground equipment in, build a new concession stand, baseball dugouts, walking trails – just some new things for the community,” Trace said.
She added, “There’s not a lot of community space in Glouster, and the park is a really centralized location. It gets utilized a lot. So this increases access for people to have healthy living spaces –– a centralized space where everyone can have community, have events.”
Simons, Glouster’s mayor, said, “I think we have one of the best parks in the county, honestly, and we just keep finding ways to put more money into it and make it that much more of a boom to the community.”
SAOP has also been working to bring more housing to Glouster, including through its New Leaf program and a partnership with Habitat for Humanity. Last fall, the nonprofits held home dedications for Habitat for Humanity homes, including for a home in Glouster.
SAOP is also working to build duplexes in Glouster to create housing opportunities for New Leaf clients and the program’s graduates.
“This town deserves just as many resources as other areas,” Trace said. “This community has gone through a lot as an old coal mining town, so now trying to revitalize it and get people interested in the space again is really important.”
Simons said the village has been “along for the ride” and has played a supporting role for efforts to bring more businesses, housing and beautification progress to Glouster, including facilitating a property transfer.
“I’m very excited and proud of what’s happening in the village,” Simons said.
Note: This story was updated after initial publication to include comment from ACEnet.
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