Bettie Jack’s Studio & Gallery in Glenside’s Keswick Village is getting a makeover.
Herrmann told Glenside Local that the shop’s current name has run its course and a “fresh perspective” was needed.
“My business partner [whose mother’s name was Bettie] has been gone three years now, and Jack, my father, has been gone 10 years,” she said.
Creating murals and painting houses are Herrmann’s full-time gig. Bettie Jack’s became a side hustle to nurture a creative spirit and share something new with a town she’s deeply rooted in: Herrmann’s great-grandmother was one of the original residents of Glenside. She had a general store in the 1930s directly across from the former Glenside Weldon school.
The new brand will be known as Harry’s House out front, and “The House of Harry” for the Keswick Theater performers who socialize in the store’s shared back alley. Harry, short for Shari (which is short for Sharisma), was a childhood nickname given to Herrmann by her father.
“I’m going for a fashion vibe,” Herrmann, a Glenside native and a 1989 graduate of Abington Senior High School, said. “I’m trying to make the art gallery more central on the first floor, and I’m moving most of the thrifty items to the cellar, which is now the Rainbow Room.”
Harry’s House’s upstairs will be “more custom clothes, paintings, vintage items, and dirty words, of course,” she said, noting that the rebrand was also created with her core costumers—”theater people”—in mind.
“They come from all over the world and they love stopping in here,” she said. “One of the singers from JJ Grey & Mofo got a tattoo of our backdoor on her arm, which is amazing to me. Two other band members have Bettie Jack’s tattoos. I guess the store left an impression on them.”
Herrmann isn’t wrong: over the years, her shop along Keswick Avenue has attracted the likes of various publicly recognizable names, include Steve-O, Eric Bazilian of The Hooters, and The Sopranos’ Steve Schirripa. In November, William “Pierre” Robert, the popular 93.3 WMMR disc jockey and on-air personality whose career spanned more than four decades, paid a visit to Bettie Jack Studio & Gallery four days before he passed away.
She’s hoping to have signage figured by April 1 and a rebrand opening by the end of that month.
“There will be kind of a hangout BYOB thing with outdoor and indoor seating,” Herrmann said.
For more on Bettie Jack’s, you can visit their Facebook page. More to come.
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Photos: Bettie Jack’s