After fire, business, building reemerge

A blaze leveled the Main Street, Gordonsville building which was home to Colonial Florist last year. And although the building may have burned to the ground, Donna Sherwood-Graves’ 33-year-old florist business didn’t even take the day off.
Sherwood-Graves said she thought she was dreaming when her neighbor called before sunrise May 9, 2008 and yelled, “Your building’s on fire!“
It was the Friday before Mothers Day-one of her busiest days-when a lightning strike caused a fire that leveled the Colonial Florist building on Gordonsville’s Main Street.
“It was devastating,“ Sherwood-Graves remembered, “I can’t even explain it.“ Moments after she’d replaced the receiver, she was dressed and out of the house near Boswell’s Tavern, and as she neared Gordonsville town limits, she said it was obvious that this was no dream. It was real, and it was really bad.
“I could see the smoke before I got to Gordonsville, and I said, ‘Oh, this is not good,‘ “ she said.
Within a couple of hours, fire tore through the structure, devouring everything in its path-the ground floor florist business and the upstairs apartment, the antiques, the tools and displays, even some of Sherwood-Graves’ family photos.
“Nothing was salvaged,“ Sherwood-Graves explained, except for memories. And as bad as it was for the florist, it was worse for the top floor tenant and her husband. “They lost everything,“ Sherwood-Graves said.
When the last of the flames was doused, there was nothing left of the venerable old brick structure but charred timbers and bricks and a smoldering heap. But Sherwood-Graves didn’t give up, and by the following morning, she’d converted a garage into her workspace and was en route to Richmond to replace the supplies and tools she’d lost in the blaze.
“I had to keep going,“ she explained.
Sherwood-Graves made all the Mothers Day arrangements she’d promised her customers along with a few others from her garage workspace. A couple of weeks later, she moved her operation to a space on West Gordon Avenue. And Sherwood-Graves’ florist businesses hasn’t missed a beat.
As Sherwood-Graves scrambled to keep up with orders first from her garage-based headquarters and then while coordinating a move to Gordon Avenue, community support poured in.
“I got a lot of little notes in the mail. I got a lot of phone calls,“ she said. “It was a comfort to have so many people that stood behind me and gave me strength.“
Sherwood-Graves said folks who learned of the fire were sympathetic to her loss, but also to the town’s loss of a building that had been part of Main Street for decades.
“Everybody was so devastated-that building had been there forever,“ she said.
Since the fire, the rhythms of life have maintained a steady stream of demand for Colonial Florist’s arrangements and bouquets. The birthdays and passings, weddings and anniversaries, celebrations and condolences continue to keep Sherwood-Graves on a forward continuum.
Meanwhile, there’s something new at the Main Street site of Colonial’s former home. The newest feature of the Gordonsville streetscape is the nearly finished construction on the footprint upon which the former Colonial Florist building stood.
The new two-story building will be a complement to its quaint, yesteryear neighbors with beige Hardiplank siding and an entrance on Market Street. A design which harmonized with Main Street’s architecture and styles was a goal from the beginning, and Sherwood-Graves consulted with historical architecture experts to make sure there was aesthetic compliance.
And although Sherwood-Graves anticipates completion of the new building, the space may become the home of another business, and not her florist operation. After all, she said, the decision’s not entirely hers.
“God’s in control of all of this. If I was not a Christian, I’m not sure I would have been able to get through it,“ she said. “I haven’t made the decision about what I’m going to do.“ She’s not sure of the direction she’s meant to take, “but it will come,“ she said confidently.