If you’ve been downtown recently, you may have walked past the vacant storefront that was once home to The Book Exchange and wondered: What’s going on in there? This familiar business on Oak Street has moved to a larger location a block away, next to Tabu on Pioneer Street. With this space now empty, we’re jumping on the opportunity to expand our restaurant-brewery and remodel the store front for a longstanding favorite gallery that’s relocating to our block, Hanson Howard.

Since mid November, Standing Stone Brewing Co. employees have taken turns hammering and tearing down walls and ceilings to get the space to its core. As one of the older buildings in Ashland and one that’s on the National Register of Historic Places (read more and see vintage photos on our website), this building boasts brick walls and classic high ceilings. We hope to showcase these period features while bringing the interior and exterior up to date.

The plan for the building has multiple layers. Standing Stone intends to expand the kitchen along the back of the building, including a larger storage and prep area for our variety of house made foods. We’ll also construct an office area for our fine behind-the-scenes employees. We can’t keep tempting them with fresh beer and food all day long; they have work to do after all!

The front of the building will be the new home of Hanson Howard Gallery. They’ve been a fixture of Main Street in Ashland for 24 years and will be relocating in the spring. They’re excited about the opportunity to be closer to the Shakespeare Festival and we’re thrilled that they’re bringing fine art to our street.

Of course, were doing all that we can to ensure the remodel doesn’t harm the planet. We were excited to give bags and bags of old insulation to a small-scale local farmer who plans to use it to insulate cabins on the farm. This will keep good materials out of the landfill and improve efficiency for the housing units.

If you’re in the area, peek in the windows to see what’s changing daily. Then, stop in the restaurant, grab a beer and browse our photos of historic Ashland in the hallway. See if you can pick out the building next door in its earlier days (hint: don’t use Standing Stone as a landmark because the building was not built until 1925). You can also get an update from a Mail Tribune article.