Haddon Hall

For Sharon and Sofia Parker, the mother daughter duo behind Haddon Hall, shopping locally is not just a concept they support through their store: it’s always been their way of life. Sofia recalls her mom requesting only locally sourced or handmade gifts for as long as she can remember. “She used to tell us for birthdays and Christmas: ‘I don’t want anything mass produced.’ She wanted to avoid items from foreign factories that weren't ethically made.” Sharon would always bring her girls to farmers' markets, and she showed them how to grow food in their backyard; she taught them the value of knowing where their food was coming from. So when Sharon thought about opening her own local storefront, the concept of an indoor farmers' market was a natural choice. But Haddon Hall is so much more than that - it’s a tribute to Sharon’s musical gifts and expertise, her deep connection to the Haddonfield community, and her desire to support artisans as they grow their small businesses.

Sharon suspects that the first seed of interest in opening her own storefront was planted in 4th grade, when she started working at The Gift Gallery: a little gift shop in Pennsauken owned by a woman named Shirley Leather. “It was right around the corner from my elementary school. I was mesmerized by her windows; she sold collectibles.” Sharon would stop in all the time just to look around. One day, close to Mother’s Day, Shirley asked Sharon if she knew how to wrap gifts. “I said, ‘Yes, I know how to wrap gifts!’ and she said, ‘Would you like to come in the day before Mother’s Day to help me?’ And I said, "Absolutely!' That’s where it started.”

Sharon’s deepest passion was for music, which is what she studied in college. “My primary instrument is my voice, my second is piano. My degrees are in vocal performance and general music. I also have a minor in early childhood education.” When she graduated, she sought out all different types of musical opportunities. This required her finding a consistent day job to financially support herself. While The Gift Gallery was Sharon’s first retail job, it was far from her last. “I always said I had to have another job to support my habit - my habit was paying for voice lessons and coaching lessons and trips to NY for auditions and things like that. I always had a retail job on the side.” These jobs included a jewelry store, an AT&T phone center, and a few high-end cosmetic lines. “I learned a lot about marketing and how important it is to be educated about the products that you’re selling. Those companies had incredible training programs.”

Once Sofia was born, Sharon decided her lifestyle needed to change. “I wanted to settle down a little bit instead of working in restaurants and singing in jazz clubs.” She found out that a local furniture company, Tanner Furniture, was hiring, and she pursued a very niche career path: furnishing libraries. “It was a creative process; I was doing space planning and designing pieces of furniture.” It was an area in which she became very successful. “At the end of the day, I furnished more than 300 libraries over an 18-year period, including the Ocean City Public Library, the Sea Isle City Public Library, and Rowan’s library in Gloucester County.” At one point, she had two design graduate students from Drexel working for her. By then, much of her work had expanded to Long Island, and she had a second daughter, Lola, at home as well. “I decided I needed to slow down. It was just an incredible commute out there, and I had two little girls. I would get up at 5 in the morning to drive to Long Island and get home by 11 at night, so at least I could put my hand and my face on my kids. It was a long day. It was also a lot of fun, but you had to have a lot of energy to do it. I decided I needed to slow it all down.”

One month after Sharon resigned from her position, the director of the Haddonfield Public Library reached out to her. “Renovations for the library had been on the books for literally 19 years. For 19 years, people were talking about it, saying how much it needed to be done and thinking it was never going to be funded. But they called me and said, ‘Hey, Sharon, would you like to give us a presentation? We’re ready to renovate the library.’ I was like, ‘What? Yes! I’ll be right there!’” It was a huge undertaking - a two-year process from start to finish. But Sharon was thrilled to be working in her hometown, and it also opened up an opportunity for her to begin locally teaching music.

During her years of working in libraries, Sharon had continued to sing through her church. “Over 18 years, I must have sung at over 300 funerals, as well as two masses every Christmas.” But she hadn’t taught piano or voice lessons since college. One day, she ran into a friend on the street. “She was a little flustered because of something that had happened with her daughters’ piano schedule. I told her, ‘I have time, I’ll come to your house, and I’ll teach the girls piano.’ That’s how it started.” Before long, word had spread about Sharon’s piano lessons. “Bit by bit, through word of mouth, through friends and neighbors, it grew to over 30 families.” Her waitlist is currently over a year long. “I am so grateful for all the families who have entrusted me to teach their kids and who have spread the word that they like the way I teach. I love being able to tailor every lesson to each child. It is an absolute joy at this point in my life to be sharing the gifts that I have and hopefully instilling the love of music in kids and families. I love helping them gain confidence, and I love helping their brains to grow, because that’s what happens when you learn music. I feel so grateful. It’s a joy in my life.” 

But even with a busy schedule teaching music, Sharon craved building something bigger. She still had that seed of desire to open her own storefront.

One day, as she was teaching piano lessons at her studio at 21 Tanner, she noticed a moving van on Mechanic Street. “I was looking out the window, and I happened to see the people who had previously been in the space moving out. I knew who the owner was, and I immediately texted him and asked, ‘Hey, does your space happen to be available?’ It had the most beautiful front window that I thought would be perfect for a retail space, and I knew it was an interesting building. He said, ‘As a matter of fact, Sharon, it is! Why don’t you come over and take a look?’ It was the strangest, most cut-up space you can imagine. There were four exterior doors and all of these nook-and-cranny types of rooms. It really wouldn’t work for most businesses.” But for someone who needed a private entrance for her piano students with a studio and waiting room, a retail spot, and some private office space, this unique building, on arguably the cutest side street in downtown Haddonfield, could not be more perfect.

“We took over the building on June 1st, almost three years ago. The movers rolled the piano across the parking lot, set it up in the new space, and that same day at 3 pm, I was back teaching piano; I didn’t miss a beat. But the rest of the space really had to be renovated; there were holes in the floor and walls to tear down.” While they worked on fixing up the side of the building, they tried to figure out what they could do in the front. “At one point, the brewery next door had thought about selling hot dogs, but they decided they were not going to do it. They told me they still thought it was a good idea. So I said, ‘Ok, I’m going to do it.’ I figured it would raise some business and get people walking through the space while we were renovating the retail side. Plus, I love feeding people; I’m Italian!” And so, Hot Dawgs was born, and it became a spot for delicious food with a name perfect for a town whose high school mascot is the Bulldawg.

“It’s been really fun. We keep it super fresh. We decided if we were going to do it, we were going to do fancy hot dogs: they are 100% organic grass fed beef hot dogs. We’ve now expanded to a vegan dog, and we also have a gluten free roll. We’ve kept the menu really small to try to keep it as manageable as possible. Running a restaurant is no joke - even a really tiny restaurant like this.”

While their goal may have been to bring business to the shop, some of the most fun Sharon and the Hot Dawg crew have is collaborating on outdoor festivals, often donating both money and food. “We’ve done the 4th of July hotdog eating contest in conjunction with the brewery for the past two years. We donated all of the hot dogs for that. We deliver to all the vendors for the arts and crafts festival because we thought it would be a great service to them. For the past 3 years, we’ve done the Haddonfield Educational Trust event. We participate in the BreastFest fundraiser with the Tyanna Foundation. We contribute to Haddonfield Friends of the Library. We’ve supported HMHS baseball and town softball. And we have supported the HMHS girls’ volleyball team since their first season. They started two or three years ago. We’ve done so many dine and donates with the community. We just love being connected in that way.”

While having a hot dog counter is a lot of fun, Sharon was excited to finally open the little retail shop she dreamed of. She began reflecting on which retailers she would want to partner with and what she wanted the heart of her store to be about. This was when her love of outdoor markets, handmade crafts, and local farmstands took center stage. It was also when Sofia jumped on board and decided she wanted to work full-time with her mom and help build this vision together.

The pair began connecting with local makers to see who might be interested in selling their products through Haddon Hall. The indoor farmers' market began to take form. “When we first started, we had no idea that 98% of the people we would be working with would be women and that a lot of them would be working moms. About 75% of them had started their business within the past 3 years. That’s how you start a small business: at a farmers' market.”

At Haddon Hall, you can find everything from farm fresh eggs, to sourdough bread, teas, cutting boards, pottery, cheese, jewelry, honey, herbal tinctures, handmade stuffed animals, candles, jams, magnets, soaps, desserts, fan gear, and more. One maker creates drinking glasses out of repurposed liquor bottles. One product proudly displays a sticker that reads, “International Flavor Awards Winner.” Every time you enter the shop, you will spot an item you did not notice before. “It’s more than a maker’s market storefront: we're really trying to know everybody’s product so we can help every person who stops by. We try to talk to every single customer who comes in here; we explain what we are and what we do. This isn’t just a store, this is a big community that they’re walking into, and there’s something for everyone. There’s something to heal everyone’s heart, something to speak to everyone, something to just meet the right need.”

This sense of community sets Haddon Hall apart. “We want every one of our makers to grow and be successful. Every month we try to elevate everyone to the highest degree that we possibly can. The best testament to success would be if one of our makers got so big that they opened their own storefront. That would be such a success for us. So many people start this way.”

Their commitment to their vendors includes supporting them during tougher seasons. “We have moms who are dealing with sick kids, we have daughters who are dealing with sick parents. Sometimes someone will have a baby. As women, we have so many different, deep responsibilities. Because of that, there are months where one of our makers might only be able to bring us a few of their products. In some other storefronts, it might mean they would lose their opportunity to continue selling in that space. But it’s our commitment to keep them, to help them, to keep them vital, to really support them.”

They also showcase the work of local artists in their space. “Each artist exhibits for a few months. We are currently hosting our fourth artist. It’s a celebration of their work. It’s nice that the Art Walk is right across the street.” Not only do artists and makers sell through Haddon Hall, they also host workshops. Sharon is a strong believer in living her life in the pursuit of lifelong learning. “Every day we need to grow our brains and learn something new. The best way to do that is to come together as a community and to share the skills that we have, the gifts that God gave us, and the skills that we’ve learned from our grandmothers or our grandfathers or aunts or uncles or whomever.”

They have hosted pottery, watercolor, body product making, herbalism, and candle making classes, just to name a few. “We're always hosting some kind of event. Last week we did a baseball cap bar. It is so much fun. There is such a wealth of knowledge that comes out, and we have an appetite for learning every bit of it. We have learned every single maker’s product and their process. We know what the benefits are, what the ingredients are, and how they make it.”

The farmers' market at Haddon Hall is a seasonal shop - it shuts down over the summer, as Haddonfield tends to quiet down during that time of year. Instead, Sharon uses the space over the summer to host an intensive workshop for 4th through 8th graders. “It includes art, literature, music, and songwriting, all combined into one. We talk about how all of those disciplines are interrelated. There’s not much out there for middle schoolers over the summer, and that demographic is so inquisitive.” Their space in the off-season is also the perfect venue for hosting authors and book clubs. In the future, they envision it being used as a performance space, particularly for classical musicians who are getting ready for auditions or recitals. “It’s intimate, and it has great acoustics; there’s pretty sound in here. It would be a beautiful little spot.” They are also in the process of expanding their workshop space into the lower level of the building, which will allow them to host more classes and give their makers a space outside of their home to work on their craft.

Haddon Hall has something for everyone, and it celebrates what makes Haddonfield (and New Jersey!) so special. “After all, we are the Garden State. We grow some of the best super foods right here.” Sharon and Sofia are excited to head into their third year of growing Haddon Hall, and they are feeling the love from all around. “We are really blessed to be in a community that is extremely vibrant and supportive. People here value local artisans. They value locally produced goods; they value organic. We’ve been having so much fun. Everything we sell is not just a product: it’s the person behind the product. There are so many people here, and so many stories. This is so much more than just a store.”