November 20, 2008 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Local Life

After 10 years on Hill, bakery still rising
by LEN LEAR

Wendy Born and James Barrett are still feeling kneaded after 10 years as co-owners of Metropolitan Bakery at 8607 Germantown Ave. (Photo by Mimi Janosy)

In mid-1993, Wendy Smith Born, now 56, and ames Barrett, now 46, each put together $25,000 and also obtained a $125,000 line of credit from Meridian Bank. (Wendy’s husband, Christopher, is an orthopedic surgeon whose credit helped secure the loan.) With that money, the two friends who had met while working for the White Dog Café signed a three-year lease for a large bakery space at 1080 Columbus Blvd.

And in November, 1993, exactly 15 years ago, they opened the first retail Metropolitan Bakery store at 262 S. 19th St., just off Rittenhouse Square. The 700 square-foot space was so small that Born and Barrett were using a shoebox for a cash register and had just one rack of freshly baked bread daily.

Despite the cramped quarters, the store was crowded from day one. “It was our lifeline and is still our biggest producer,” said Born of the property that produces more than $500,000 in yearly revenue. Business was so busy, in fact, that Barrett would sleep in the store, and Born got up each day at 3 a.m. to make deliveries in her car.

Hiller brings hope, education to African kids
by BARBARA WYBAR

Women must pick bananas and carry them long distances on foot back to their village. (The photos accompanying this article were taken by the students at the vocational school or the Children of Peace orphan support program who participated in the training led by Scott Douglas. He is a volunteer from New Jersey who somehow heard about Barbara Wybar’s work and went to Bududa armed with cameras to donate to the program along with other materials and to teach the kids.)

Barbara Wybar is a Chestnut Hill resident who has spent most of the last year living and working as a volunteer in the village of Bududa, Uganda. She sends back periodic reports to the Local.

After spending two months visiting friends and relatives in the U.S., Canada and the U.K., I returned to Bududa to continue the work you all so generously support. I have to tell you about my exciting first day back in Bududa.

Accompanying me were two volunteers, Kaitlyn Riordan, an energetic 26 year old graduate of The Study in Montreal, joining us to teach English for three months, and Scott Douglas, a dynamic businessman from New Jersey, who would be spending 10 days teaching our students how to take pictures and communicate with photography. We would all be staying in the new guesthouse, completed in my absence, although furnished only with bed frames and mattresses.

Hill B&B hosted visitors from all around the world
by PAULA M RILEY

?One of the extended-stay apartments. It’s cozier than staying in a hotel.

For the past decade Teresa Vesey of Chestnut Hill has been welcoming visitors to the area. First as a hostess of a bed and breakfast and now as landlord of extended-stay apartments, Vesey and her organization, Anam Cara Accommodations, has hosted visitors from across the country and the world.

Many of her guests visit to attend one or two-week long classes at the Institute for the Achievement of Human Potential in Wyndmoor. They come from all over Europe, Latin America and Canada to provide assistance to their children facing physical or mental challenges.