Oliver's gone, Walgreens coming

Joanna Oliver had an unusual reaction to watching the Kalliope’s restaurant building, at the corner of Routes 3 and 132 (a.k.a. Sanborn Road), as it was demolished recently.

“When I started to seeing it torn down, it was painful,” she said. “It was still there but as I drove by and they took down each part, it was: there goes my arm; and then my leg went.”

Oliver laughs about the situation because she’s wise enough to understand that change in the Interstate 93/exit 20 is inevitable now — in fact, she helped start the boom that has made the area the commercial center of the Lakes Region.

But there’s a tough of sadness to her laughter because she hated seeing the original historic building taken apart. After all, for almost 15 years it served as her restaurant — Oliver’s, which was commonly considered one of the best in the region. And she opened it at that spot because it was in that beautiful wood structure.

“It was 75-years-old then,” she recalled. “And it used to be an information place (center) for tourists. When I first bought the property in 1983 we had the information place there, and we sold antiques and gifts. And I rented the other one (building on the property) to Alan Soule, the jeweler. That’s what we had for a few years.”

Then things changed after her spouse passed away. “My husband died in 1990, and three months later I opened Oliver’s. Well, I had to do something and the only thing I knew was good food, people and ambiance… It was my first restaurant and I was named Restaurateur of the Year in 1999.”

Oliver used her sense of history and her knowledge of people to make Oliver’s a great place to go. What made it especially charming though was the owner’s sense of old-fashioned hospitality and graciousness. She was rarely absent, greeting customers as if they were all old friends — and many became ones. Her Sunday brunches were especially notable, with a wide variety of great food and delicious deserts — and your choice of a glass of champagne or a cup of the fantastic coffee.

When Oliver’s first opened in 1990, there was virtually nothing else around the area — no outlet mall, no supermarket, no McDonald’s. “I was even there before the Til’n Diner. There was a little deli-type of thing there,” she said. “There was only Pike Industries across the street. There was just the sand and gravel pit behind us (where the huge J. Jill distribution center is now).

“I was there almost two or three years before McDonald’s came in, and then the (Til’n) Diner came in. And when McDonald’s came in, I was devastated. I said, they’ve caught up to me. How do you get rid of these people,” she laughed. “I knew once there was a McDonald’s there was going to be a Burger King and everything else.”

Along the way, Oliver bought an 1875 structure and had it moved next to the Oliver’s to add to her eatery. “It was the old Judge Crawford house. He had 11 children and they all turned out to be lawyers and politicians and other people like that. I thought, this would be a great addition. I had it brought down (to the restaurant site) on the bed of a truck during Motorcycle Weekend at 5:30 in the morning. It was built in 1875 and I took it on. I fought the town for it — they wanted to make it (Oliver’s site) into a parking lot.”

Oliver said she also ran into a problem with the town when she tried to get repairs done on her private sewer line serving the restaurant. “The town didn’t like it, they wouldn’t give me a permit. So I called Milo Pike (of Pike Industries), he was a friend of mine. I told him what was happening. And he said, no problem.

“I said, Milo, how much do you want to fix it? And he said, nothing. I’ll just get it across the road and put it across my land. Then I’ll give you an easement so there won’t be any problems.”

(The former site where Pike Industries sat is now occupied by a shopping mall that includes an Applebee’s, a Staples and a super-sized Shaw’s supermarket.)

Before the sewer work had even begun however, a Pennsylvania businessman named David Ober contacted Oliver with a proposal. “He said, if you make that pipe big enough I’ll give you 63 stores,” she recalled.

Oliver agreed and borrowed $90,000 to have the larger-scale work completed. She eventually sold the pipe to the then-owners of what is now the Tanger’s Factory Outlet but she maintains she made no money on the deal; the mall owners eventually gave the sewer pipe to the town.

“The mall was needed, we had nothing up there,” she said. “I knew something special was going to happen there but I just didn’t know what it was. But it was an explosion.”

Over the years, Oliver put several additions put on to her restaurant, all in the character of the original structure. Her place also became a regular stop on the primary campaign trail for politicians seeking the presidency. “I always felt like the people should have a chance to meet the candidates,” she said.

Then five years ago, after her second husband died, Oliver sold her restaurant and the 1.97-acre lot it sat on to Cornerstone Reality Holdings, the company that owns the popular Concord restaurant, the Red Blazer. “It was too much,” she said. “I was alone and it was overwhelming.” Kallioipe's was born.

Then several months ago, the Red Blazer owners got an offer from a company named Walker Tilton, LLC for the property.

“Walgreens wanted to be there,” said Pedro Godoi, one of the restaurant’s owners.

In May, Cornerstone Holdings sold the former Oliver’s restaurant land to Walker Tilton LLC for $2.75-million.

The new owners quickly began dismantling the old buildings until nothing was left. On the site now, signs of the new store are already taking shape.

“It’s going to be a 17,000-square-foot building,” said Sandy Plessner, the town’s land use administrative assistant. “There will be 57 parking spaces, parking all around it and a drive-up window.” At a recent Planning Board meeting, the new owners indicated they wanted to open the store as soon as possible, she added. “They hoped to be done before the fall.”

Oliver admits she’s not happy about how things worked out, even though she understands Cornerstone Holdings accepting the business deal. “I wish there was more of an assortment of shops (in the mall)”, she said. “I wish there was a jewelry shop — what we didn’t need was a Walgreens.”

But what upsets her most is that the Red Blazer owners didn’t contact her about the historic structures on her old property before they were demolished. “To rip down the building — I might have taken those buildings.

I would have still preserved those buildings.

“What’s wrong with Americans — and I’m an American, I love Americans — but they don’t appreciate history,” she said. “They don’t understand the difference between the feelings of wood versus plastic. They don’t know what you can gain from that, the feeling you get inside. If they did we’d never ripped down another building.”

Oliver has faced her share of difficulties over the years. Besides the loss of two husbands and her beloved Oliver’s, she is now one of only two siblings left from a family of 19 children.

But the year before she sold Oliver’s, she purchased the dilapidated old Tilton Inn on Main Street. And — as she has done several times before with other old buildings in the area, including her home on Sanborn Road — she lovingly restored it. It’s now called the 1857 Inn, with 12 beautiful rooms. She also owns the Olive Branch Tavern, which is attached to it.

“Everyone has a calling and I think my calling was to save history,” Oliver said. “And in saving history, I’ve given back to the community the warmth and graciousness that was there was there years ago. How can you buy that? It’s priceless.”