Martinsburg jewelry business celebrates a century of sparkling | Instant

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — Jewelry store owner Bill Caldwell chokes up a bit as he describes his relationships with customers.

“We’re very lucky to have customers from the same families for generation after generation. … It’s very gratifying, you know? It’s a very personal business, so you get involved with people’s lives and their traditions and their heritage. So you make very deep friendships,” he said.

Caldwell and his wife, Barbara, own L.A. Roberts Jewelers in downtown Martinsburg. The store is celebrating its 100th year in business.

L.A. Roberts came to Martinsburg from the Eastern Shore of Maryland in 1915 to work in another person’s business, Caldwell said. Roberts bought the store and put his name on it in 1918. 

Large wooden display cabinets still line one side of the narrow building. A safe occupies part of the back of store.

“The cabinets are original to the store, and the safe, (too),” Caldwell said, noting that the cabinets probably predate the business.

In 1932, Roberts moved the store about a block south to its current location at 146 N. Queen St.

Roberts and Caldwell’s father, who goes by the nickname “Mac,” both attended First Baptist Church in Martinsburg. Roberts taught the young Caldwell in some Sunday school classes.

Roberts wound up hiring the youth to do some odd jobs around the business.

After World War II, a grown-up Mac Caldwell took watchmaking classes and working for Roberts for years.

Eventually, Mac Caldwell bought the business and Bill, one of his children, started working at the store. Bill Caldwell acquired it from his father in 1992.

The older Caldwell, now 91, still lives in Martinsburg.

“He’s doing quite well. … We’re close by, and we keep an eye on him,” Bill Caldwell said.

The business that Roberts and the Caldwells nurtured is doing well, too, Bill Caldwell said, despite changes in jewelry styles, the decline of downtown retail shopping and the rise of internet competition.

L.A. Roberts Jewelers still displays a wide range of rings, necklaces and other jewelry, as well as clocks, watches and figurines.

“I’m glad to know that we can maintain a good inventory,” Caldwell said.

People don’t window shop and browse like they once did, he said.

“It seems like people who come here are here for a purpose,” he said.

“I do a lot of repairs and appraisals, that sort of thing. … We deal a little heavier in custom designs than we used to.”

He likes the creativity of custom-design work. Sometimes people have definite ideas about what they want, he said, and he tries to make those become reality.

Sometimes, people don’t know what they want, and he works with them on various concepts to arrive at a design for them.

“You try to come up with something that is personal to them,” he added.

Others, including his wife, help at the sales counter.

Barbara Caldwell is a retired teacher. She spends about two days a week working at the store.

The Caldwells said that, while jewelry design trends come and go, items like bridal sets, engagement rings and classic pearls always sell well.

“And watches,” Barbara Caldwell added. “That’s the man’s accessory.”

At age 61, Bill Caldwell plans to see the store well into its second century. He said he doesn’t plan to retire soon, noting that his father was working past age 80.

“I have no children, so there’s no heir apparent in the immediate family,” Caldwell said. “I haven’t thought ahead that far.”

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