2017

Celebrating 20 Spectacular Years from the Roof .. to the Lake .. to the Stars!

 

2016

Celebrating the 100th Birthday of Frank Sinatra and 19 Years of the Bemus Bay Pops

 

The Chautauqua Lake Pops wishes to work together to make a difference in our world and continue  ..  Bringing the Arts to the People.

Music Matters.

Pat Locke, Maestro Muse

 

Stewart's Mayville Hardware 

 

The Mayville Hardware in Mayville is now known as Stewart's Mayville Hardware located in the same location that it has been for over 60 years at 53 S. Erie Street. Owners, Craig and Sherry Stewart have been running things for the past several years and have evolved the business by having anything hardware related available for customers and by providing a new computerized system for easy and quick checkouts. The business couple wasted no time in making sure the staple of the Mayville community wouldn't fade from the local storefront scene.  Even before the closure under previous family ownership, the Stewarts began the purchasing process because Craig felt a pending closure would negatively affect other local businesses, including his own Sea, Land and Air business that specializes in landscaping work, kitchen and bathroom remolding plus repairs to boats and small airplanes. After an offer was put together and accepted, the Stewarts established a relationship with the sponsoring warehouse, Do It Best based out of Ft. Wayne Indiana and founded in 1945 by Arnold Gerberding. Do It Best Corp. is the second-largest co-op in the industry approaching $4 billion in annual sales.  

 

"A lot of people were glad that Mayville Hardware didn't close. Never owning or working in a retail store has taught me alot."

 

Sherry Stewart

 

The Stewart ownership of the Mayville Hardware continues a family legacy in which the Anderson family operated the store.  After initial operations were performed under new leadership, the Stewarts felt encouraged by the positive response of the village. Customers can still come to the hardware to get glass cut, windows glazed, screens replaced, keys made, pipe cut/threaded and more.  

 

"You buy it here; we can install it. Everyone keeps saying how glad they are that the place is still open."

 

Craig Stewart

Pat Locke

Maestro Muse

 

 

Webb's Captain's Table 

It all started with Paul Webb and Nadine Henderson.  Paul was from St. Petersburg, Florida and Nadine was from Corry, Pennsylvania.  As young kids, they both moved with their parents to Mayville NY, the county seat of Chautauqua County which sat at the North end of Chautauqua lake a few miles and several feet higher in elevation South of Lake Erie.  Paul was an athlete, Nadine a dancer.  Their story began around 1937, the year they both graduated from high school.  It all seemed to happen at once.  First, they were married blending their stories together and then they started honing their talents Paul as a ballplayer and Nadine as a tap-dancer with her partner and friend, Marmey Crandall.  Paul played for the local Moose Club and soon was invited to play for a county team known as the Lake Erie Redbirds.  He attracted so much attention from his performance on the field that a professional scout invited him to tryout for the St. Louis Cardinals!

Meanwhile, in her own realm on the dance floor, Nadine was also turning heads. After a successful performance on Major Bowe’s Talent Hour, a popular radio program of the time, Nadine was invited to tryout for the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes! Unfortunately, neither Paul nor Nadine ever made it to their auditions. A war was brewing in Europe. Germany invaded France, Belgium, and Norway. In Washington DC, a military draft was reinstated and Paul Webb was notified that his name had been drawn.  

Paul went to Europe and Nadine stayed in Mayville tending to the young family business which was a soda shop on Mayville's main street known as the Fountainette.  In 1944, Paul landed at Normandy under Nazi machine-gun fire.  He not only survived the invasion, but took twenty-nine German prisoners.  He fought with General Patton at the Battle of Bastogne.  When the war was over a bronze metal adorned his chest for acts of heroism in a combat zone.  Paul Webb returned to Mayville after proudly serving his country.

Ready to work and disciplined from wartime Paul and Nadine sold the Fountainette to make way for their dreams as candy-makers and restauranteurs.  They purchased a small cottage on the shores of Chautauqua Lake and began making chocolate suckers from their kitchen.  They later purchased The Mooring Bit, a small diner in Mayville that became Webb's Captain's Table.  In 1970, Paul and Nadine, with a family now beneath them, started construction on a lakeside motel.

From there came many changes and expansions to Webb's family business, but the groundwork had been laid. What started out as a venture in chocolate suckers grew to include not only the restaurant, the motel, the candy shop and a miniature golf course, but also various real-estate acquisitions in Florida including a second candy shop, rental medical offices, a gas station with convenience store and even a citrus grove! Though Paul passed in 1999 and Nadine in 2007, their imprint on the business remains firm and lasting, today.  The way they learned to entertain, to care, to listen and to provide -- it's all there, like they never left.  Today, the story of Webb's lives on through their five children, many grandchildren and the ever-extending company of great-grandchildren.

Paul and Nadine Henderson Webb's imprint on their restaurant business certainly remains firm and everlasting to this day thanks to their son, Ben; his wife, Amy and their 2 children, Teagan and Cord who will, hopefully, someday carry on the legacy of the Webb name for another generation and beyond. 

Pat Locke, Maestro Muse