Over the last few years, the Lebanon Valley Mall, along Route 422 west of Lebanon, has expanded its offerings.
LebTown featured just a few of these businesses below, with a full directory available here.
- The Drunken Smithy
- The St. James Players
- Self Selfie Museum
- Your Finishing Touch (seasonal)
- God’s Plan Boutique
- CBD N’ Stuff
The Drunken Smithy
The Drunken Smithy’s axe-throwing lanes have been open for around six weeks.
“The axe-throwing venue is pretty simple; you come, you throw the axe, bring your own favorite beverage and food,” explained co-owner Eitri Jones. “I don’t think there’s any other axe-throwing competition in Lebanon County.
“We’ve been seeing, every week it seems like there’s more people coming and throwing.”
Jones and business partner Greg Ramsey have been running a Drunken Smithy location in Palmyra for seven years.
The mall location is not fully complete yet. The business will be unveiling its forging workshop, now under construction, on Jan. 14.
“So the core of our business is our four-hour forging workshops,” explained Jones. “You come in and there’s only two things that we want to happen; we want you to have a great time and we want you to make a cool project.”
In addition to the axe-throwing lanes, the store has a selection of goods forged at the Palmyra location available for sale.
The Drunken Smithy also sells gift cards that can be used for workshops or axe-throwing.
“In today’s day and age where it’s so hard to find something to buy for people, our workshops and our goods have been very popular for people to give as gifts around the holidays,” said Jones.
Jones hopes to later expand the storefront to include features like a restaurant/winery, a woodshop, glassblowing, and/or candlemaking.
St. James Players
The St. James Players have been performing from the mall since the summer, and have performed five shows in the space thus far.
Sunday was the last performance of A Christmas Carol, which founder Karen Dundore-Gulotta said has outperformed all previous shows at the mall in turnout.
As of Friday, they had sold 847 tickets, outselling their opening show, Newsies, which had five of eight shows sold out.
The Players previously operated out of 53 Chestnut St. in Lebanon, but in January Dundore-Gulotta learned that they would need to find a new location.
“We were looking at a couple spots within the mall, but we hadn’t really decided on what spot,” said Dundore-Gulotta. “All of a suddent, this became available and it was the most suitable for a theater.”
In addition to their public shows, the St. James Players also host Star Academy, a free theater program for local kids. The program has 24 slots total and is currently accepting sign-ups.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity for every kid because I firmly believe that all children need to be exposed to the arts,” said Dundore-Gulotta. “It shouldn’t just be for the people who have the ability to pay for lessons.
“When I was a girl growing up in Lebanon County, there weren’t many opportunities; there weren’t classes to take in performing arts, especially classes that were free. I always wanted to build something I didn’t have, so I built the St. James Players.”
Youth are central to the Players’ mission, said Dundore-Gulotta. All of their shows feature actors of all ages, with A Christmas Carol‘s actors ranging from 8 to in their 70s.
“Every show has children in it, and every show is family-friendly, wholesome entertainment that the whole family can come and see,” said Dundore-Gulotta.
The St. James Players also focus on making shows affordable for audiences, with most of their shows coming in at around $15 a person.
The next show the group plans to put together is Cornfield of Dreams.
Self Selfie Museum
Luz Hurtado and husband Carlos Hurtado worked together to make their dream of starting a selfie museum a reality.
When they were putting together the Self Selfie Museum, Carlos took on much of the building and contracting and Luz designed the store’s 28 booths.
The museum opened in April; a business model new to Lebanon but not to the world — Luz mentioned taking inspiration from similar businesses in other countries like the Dominican Republic and Columbia.
“In the beginning it was basically explaining to people, and it was a little hard, which I knew,” explained Luz, noting that while paying for experiences like this one is common in bigger cities, it is still new to many of the consumers of Lebanon. “When I brought that over here, I knew I had a challenge, and I took that challenge.
“Right now people are starting to get it; I have my own customer base and I have started to book events, which at the beginning was impossible because people didn’t understand this.”
The storefront includes a party space and booths, all set up with lighting. Customers of all ages can rent the space to make memories and create content; be that photos, TikToks, podcasts, and more.
“Every booth in here is simple but it tells you something,” said Luz, noting current booths include an upside-down optical illusion, a podcast booth, and a money booth complete with prop bills.
The Hurtados are parents of four kids, aged 7 to 14. Luz said she wanted to curate a safe way for kids and adults to participate in social media, a growing part of youth culture.
“I thought, instead of fighting social media, why not teach the kids how to create safe content in a safe place?” said Luz.
Customers can either rent the space individually or purchase a party package giving all party attendees unlimited access to the space.
The museum rotates booth themes every eight months, and the first rotation is coming in January, with decorations and backdrops made by Luz. They also have themed booths for holidays throughout the year, with a large Christmas area set up for December.
Your Finishing Touch
Lynne Ober has brought wares of business Your Finishing Touch to the mall seasonally for around 13 years.
Ober closed her mall storefront in 2010, but returns every Christmas season to sell a variety of ornaments and decorations.
Your Finishing Touch specializes in affordable decorations and gifts, with over 300 ornaments costing $1.50 each and other gifts under $6.
Ober has seen the mall change over the years, including the recent influx of new storefronts.
“I think that mall management is doing whatever they can to bring out new businesses here to bring out more people,” Ober said. “I think there needs to be an awareness of those businesses here because they’re unique in and of themselves.”
Ober will continue to be set up in the mall lobby leading up to Christmas.
God’s Plan Boutique
Before God’s Plan Boutique had a storefront in the mall, owner Naira Santiago ran the business from a truck she would park in the mall lot.
Santiago began sewing at her home in 2020, with a focus on modest clothing for women.
“I used to do all the skirts and then I started to get a lot of orders and started to buy from providers,” she explained.
Santiago got set up with a storefront around July of this year.
“It’s a modest boutique, it’s clothes to go to church and more Christian moments,” explained Santiago.
She said that she’s been able to sell more product and interact with more customers since getting a storefront.
“I have a lot of new customers now that I’m here inside the mall,” said Santiago. “I like when new people come here and they just love the clothes.”
CBD N’ Stuff
Julie Armold opened the CBD N’ Stuff storefront at the mall in March 2021, after starting her business online in 2019. In that time, she said, business has gotten better.
“It’s picked up a good bit,” she said. “The mall’s really picking up and I have noticed there’s a lot more businesses.”
Armold offers federally- and state-legal hemp products, both for people and for pets.
“CBD helps animals as much as it helps people,” Armold said.
She said a majority of her customers have disabilities or medical issues, with many coming in for sleep, pain relief, and more. Armold said she was able to go off opiates with the help of products like the ones she sells.
“I was able to come off of all my opiates, all my muscle relaxers, all that with cannabis products,” she said.
“When people shop a small CBD store, they support the small business versus the dispensaries,” said Armold.
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