Jolly’s Jewelers closing after 130 years

RALEIGH -- A notice outside said the store was closed for the day, but North Hills shoppers wouldn’t have known it from the commotion inside Jolly’s Jewelers and Silversmiths as employees rushed to record inventory and mark down prices – preparing for one final sale.

“There are great educational institutions in the world that will teach you how to build a business,” said Frank Jolly Ragsdale, the last in a long line of the jewelry store’s owners. “There is no place that you can go to learn how to close one down.”

After more than a century in Raleigh, the hallmark jewelry store is permanently clearing out the 100-year-old cabinets that have always held its jewelry. Though Ragsdale hasn’t set the date yet, he said the store will remain open through the holiday season until early 2012.

“For generations it has been handed down,” Ragsdale said. “At this point, there is no further interest among the members of my family to continue operating the store.

“I am 64 years old. I am still in good health, and my wife and I are looking forward to some freedom that we have never experienced, and we want to go live some.”

Jolly’s got its start in Raleigh at 222 S. Wilmington St., when Ragsdale’s great-grandfather opened the store in 1881. Seven years later, the family moved the store to Fayetteville Street, just shy of where the Wells Fargo building now sits. They stayed there for almost 90 years.

Ragsdale can’t remember his first day in the store – but then he was just a baby.

“Whatever they toted infants around in in those days, they brought me in here and put me on the diamond counter, and I never got off of it,” he said. “I grew up in this business.”

Ragsdale’s first job was opening the front door of the jewelry store, a 7-year-old greeting customers as they came in and thanking them as they left.

“My grandmother would buy me a ham sandwich and a Coca-Cola and some potato chips, and I’d work all day long with that,” he said.

In 1975, the store moved to Cameron Village when Fayetteville Street was turned into a pedestrian mall. There Ragsdale met his future wife, then a videographer with WRAL-TV.

“I was doing a story about something in the jewelry business and they sent a crew, and they sent her in the door,” he said. “If it had not been for Jolly’s I would not have her and I would not have the two children I have. There’s a lot of good stuff that have come out of this business.”

The store moved to North Hills eight years ago.

“It’s always been one of the most beautiful stores in Raleigh, in North Carolina,” said Candy Lewis, a childhood friend and longtime customer of Ragsdale’s.

Lewis stopped by the store Wednesday afternoon to congratulate him – and swap stories.

“I have a pearl necklace and bracelet that my mother gave me when I was 16 from Jolly’s,” said Lewis, who has lived in Raleigh her whole life.

“That’s going to be the hardest part,” she said, “to not find him when my momma wants something.”

The hardest part for Ragsdale, however, will be separating with the store’s 14 employees. He said will make every effort to see that they find the right place after Jolly’s.

“The emotions in here have been really mixed,” Ragsdale said. “It’s a difficult time for everybody.”

Jenny Urbanski has been Ragsdale’s right hand for almost four years, working as the office manager since she moved to Raleigh from San Diego. She said she’s excited for him to have a life.

“Family’s first, always with Frank,” she said.

She said business has fluctuated because of the economy over the years, but the store is preparing for crowds as people take advantage of the closing sale and one last opportunity to buy from Jolly’s. “It’s an end of an era,” Urbanski said. “I moved to the East Coast because the history is so rich, and this is it. I’m in the heart of it.”

Few would argue with that.

Stilwell: 919-829-4649