There's a new framer on the block: Meghan Daubenspeck buys Piedmont Print & Frame

LACONIA — Downtown’s newest business owner isn’t so new after all: it’s Meghan Daubenspeck. 

Daubenspeck purchased Piedmont Print & Frame from John Bethell on Sept. 16, after working there for years — and for about 3.5 of those, she ran the place. Now, the keys are hers.

“It was an amazing opportunity and I’m proud that I jumped on it,” she said. 

Piedmont Print & Frame is located at 50 Canal St., near the intersection with Beacon Street East. 

“The idea was kind of cooking for a little while,” Daubenspeck said on Saturday night. She opened up the shop for a gathering of friends and customers to celebrate her purchase of the shop, officially adding another woman-owned business to downtown. Around 30 guests milled about that night, striking conversations and sharing drinks, food, and later cake. 

One guest came to the party prepared, with a print in tow, a fiery and flowery image on a blue background, and asked Daubenspeck if she’d work on it. She agreed and got to work immediately. That’s old hat for her — on a large roll of butcher paper affixed to the easterly wall of the shop, she’d listed no less than 31 jobs at various points of progress. 

“I haven’t even updated that since I got back from Rome,” she said later in the night, referring to a recent trip to Italy. 

Bethell bought the shop in February 2021 and hired Daubenspeck part-time sometime around the early fall months of 2022. She studied graphic design and marketing in college, and is a passionate champion for art, so working at the print shop felt like a natural fit. 

Only a few months had passed before Bethell broke his leg, rendering him unable to run the shop effectively, and it was Daubenspeck who he leaned on for that period. He observed she was highly capable, describing her as “wise as serpents, gentle as doves.” 

“She’s gentle and sweet, but she’s no slouch,” Bethell said. “She’s a shrewd businesswoman.”

Thus began her 3.5-year journey running the shop as its commander-in-chief, of sorts. 

“I learned a lot,” she said. “A lot about how to run a small business in a town like this. 

“I appreciated the way you let me take the reins,” she said of Bethell.

In her time at the shop, Daubenspeck’s had the opportunity to work with some incredible pieces of art, she said, and some odd ones, too. A signed Norman Rockwell, for example, and a small sketch created by Pablo Picasso.

“I think it’s really special for people to feel safe bringing their pieces in here,” she said, “hoping I can do it justice.”

Piedmont Print & Frame handles both media as the name suggests, though Daubenspeck said framing makes up 90% or more of the business, and is “definitely the focus.”

When a customer comes to the shop with a piece of art, a photograph, memorabilia or another such item to be framed, Daubenspeck typically offers them a beer or a coffee, and engages in a discussion about the piece to be framed, honing-in on its significance. She’ll provide options for frames and mattes, and get to work.

“I’m proud as can be,” Jim Daubenspeck, owner of the neighboring Daub’s Cobbler Shop on Canal, and Meghan’s father, said on Saturday night. Jim said all of his kids have been around business, and each is finding their particular interests. 

“She found it here, loves it,” he said.

He learned Meghan had purchased the frame shop through one of his customers — not from her — and said she’s always had an independent personality. 

“Technically, my dad was my first customer” post-purchase, Meghan said. Jim paid for a mini-frame with a 2025 silver dollar, a keepsake she intends to keep on the shop’s wall as her “first dollar.”

Meghan said she’ll keep the name the same. A recent trip abroad influenced her eye for some things, though — she said she appreciated the way small shops were kept in Rome. But the way she ran the shop, and the way Bethell insisted it be run, was “very intentional” in every aspect, and she likes that about its character. 

For now, she’s the owner and sole employee, though she and Bethell spoke about participating in the Department of Defense SkillBridge program, which affords service members opportunities to learn marketable skills during their final 180 days of service. Meghan said she’s interested in continuing it on.

“I think it’s an amazing program,” she said. 

“It’s a way to put your money where your mouth is,” Bethell said.

Anyone interested in services offered at the shop is encouraged to walk right in, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. The shop also has a presence on social media as “Piedmont Framery.”

“I’m excited for this next chapter for me,” Meghan said Saturday night. “I’m excited to see where it takes us.”