DEVELOPING A SYNERGY
Fiber On Main Refurbishes Vintage Sewing Machine
by John Conway
HURLEYVILLE, March 2022 —There is a real synergy developing between Main Street establishments in Hurleyville these days.
A good example is the recent interaction between Fiber On Main, which shares the building at 227 Main Street with The Hurleyville Sentinel, and the Sullivan County Historical Society and Museum at 265 Main Street.
It started last summer when, as outlined in a story in the September edition of The Sentinel, the Museum hosted a small group of ghost hunters headed up by John Simon, who splits his time between working at Fiber On Main and writing a weather column for the paper. And now Mr. Simon and Rachel Carrigan, who manages the fiber store, have returned the favor by refurbishing a vintage Singer Sewing Machine that had been on display at the Museum and had seen better days.
“This is just the first one we are going to do,” Mr. Simon said after completing the project. “The Historical Society has others we hope to be able to get working, too.”
The portable Singer machine Mr. Simon worked on, which he discovered was originally manufactured in January of 1910, had previously been refurbished decades ago by a Singer-affiliated service center, but it was in serious need of some TLC, lubrication, and a few new parts, all of which were addressed.
“It now works just like it did when it was new,” Mr. Simon said.