We have two new stories. We might call them recession stories, although they’re certainly more than that. Neither would have happened quite this way, or at all, if not for the recession and the real estate frenzy that preceded and probably led to it. And they include two of the key characteristics of the Great Recession, small businesses going under, people losing homes, and of course, unemployment.

Only In Sykesville

But they’re also strangely similar and uniquely Sykesville stories filled with odd coincidences. Wiley Purkey is an artist and long-time resident whose Toy Train shop is going out of business. Trish Suder is an artist and even longer-term resident whose home is in foreclosure. Before opening Purkey’s Toy Trains, Wiley operated a frame shop on Main Street Sykesville. Before moving the business to Eldersburg, Trish also ran a frame shop on Main Street Sykesville.

Wiley operated his frame shop through the nineties out of 7602 Main Street, in the small stretch of buildings known as the McDonald block. Trish ran her frame shop in the early sixties at 7606 Main Street, two doors down from Wiley's shop, also on the McDonald block. The one building between them was 7604, and eventually Wiley moved into that building and opened his toy train store, effectively making Wiley and Trish next door neighbors three decades removed.

Now both are going through tough, or in Trish’s case, traumatic times. Both are determined to continue on as artists.

Trish says, “As long as I live and breathe, I'll paint. God's given me a gift and it's just who I am.”

Wiley says, “I find myself in the position where it’s hard to wake up without wanting to do something creative. It’s the kind of thing that burns like a fire inside, and for me one day it was gone. It was gone for fifteen years, and now it’s back.”

Banks, Drug Stores, and Pool Halls

As for the McDonald block itself, which will shortly have two empty storefronts, like the artists, like the town, it will endure. First built in 1878, it burned badly in the late thirties but rose revamped from the ashes not long after. There’ve been banks on the block, drug stores, law offices, frame shops, residences, and pool halls.

The pool hall was run by a man named Edward Barnes. The pool hall started at 7602, where Wiley had his frame shop. After the fire, Barnes reopened the pool hall at 7606, where Trish had her frame shop. Two artists, two frame shops, two pool halls.

And the Barber Mayor

There was also a barbershop. In 1933, Happy Keeney began cutting hair and went on cutting into the eighties. Keeney kept pigeons in his shop, served as town mayor, and ran the volunteer fire department. Only in Sykesville could you get a shave and a haircut from the mayor, knowing that at any moment, he might bolt to douse a fire, or stop to feed the pigeons cooing in the background.

So where was Keeney’s barber shop? At 7604 Main Street, of course, right between Trish and Wiley’s frame shops. Wiley sold trains in the building for ten years, but Happy Keeney cut hair for fifty.

Stay tuned. We’ll be watching out for Wiley, Trish, and 7604 Main Street Sykesville, crossing our fingers, and wishing them well.

Related Stories:

Artist Without A Residence: She calls herself Sykesville's resident artist. She just donated 1800 prints to the town. But Trish Suder's losing her home and not sure where she's going.

Purkey's Is Going, but Wiley is Staying: Wiley Purkey's Toy Trains will soon be no more.