Family Style

The Julia marks 100 years in Wilmington

Fashion isn't the only thing that has changed in the hundred years since The Julia opened in 1916, says HELEN ROUSE. She and her sister, CORENA AKEL, are co-owners of the women’s specialty clothing and accessories shop that has been in their family for a century in Wilmington. Being able to ride the tide of change has kept them in business. 

The shop started as Akel’s by their father, H.A. Akel, and their aunt, Julia. At some point, the shop was called Akel’s and The Julia. When their father died in 1964, with four children to support, their mother stepped in as owner. Eventually Rouse and her sister would enter the business, purchasing it from their mother in 1979. 

By then, Rouse (right, with Akel) had a bachelor of business administration degree from the University of Georgia and a couple of years of travel under her belt. 

“I never thought I’d take over the business, but I wanted to help my mother after I got out of college,” Rouse says. “When I came in the store, she gave me a lot of freedom, and I discovered I liked it. I liked the creativity of how the store looks. I realized I like being in charge. I was in my early twenties, and that’s when you have the fire and the energy.” 

The way people shop now is different than in the 1970s when she came on the scene, Rouse notes. 

“There is a shift in priorities,” she says. “Shopping used to be more recreational than it is now. Lifestyles are just so different  …Women have more choices now.” 

The way The Julia does business has changed over the decades. But as a specialty shop, the owners feel that trust, quality, and consistency are important in the relationship with customers.  With the advent of online purchasing, the recreation of shopping is gone, says Rouse, although vacationers are more  likely to shop for fun. She has regulars who are frequent vacationers, as well as local women who remained steady clients. 

Her predecessors followed the same instinct.  The shop’s original location was on Market Street in 1916, according to Rouse. Back then, there were no ready-to-wear stores for women – women were making their clothes or having them made. So, the shop started out with linens and ready-to-wear. In 1935, it moved to the corner of Front and Grace streets close to the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad’s office, because women were working there, Rouse explains. The block near the Atlantic Coast Line building had a lot of commerce, and there was a vibrancy downtown.

Moving an established downtown business with local clientele to Landfall Center in 1995 was a major event for the shop. That’s when things were shifting, Rouse recalls. Traffic to downtown was dropping off because it took more time, and people were allotting time differently.

“There were other shops around me, and it was an eye opener,” she says. By 2008, the economy changed again, and The Julia moved to its current location at 7220 Wrightsville Avenue in May 2009. Just in advance of the bridge to Wrightsville Beach and in company with other popular stores, local and visiting customers easily find them there.

Rouse worked part-time when her children were young and came on full time in 2008. She’s not expecting her children to take the reins, but leaves it up to them.

Rouse says her goal to make it to the hundred-year mark for the business was more important to her than she realized. Now that it’s here, it feels like a real accomplishment – and she continues the optimism that drives her. Her predecessors taught her the value of trust and to not take anything for granted.

She still enjoys the people, purchasing trips to New York, and the ongoing story of local business. Her friend sent her a canceled check to The Julia, dated in the 1920s, from his grandmother’s papers, and they both had a good laugh.

After working six days a week, Rouse enjoys reading, cooking and crossword puzzles. But she’s not complaining.

“I have so much respect for the women I’ve known as customers – some for decades – that it makes it easy to come to work,” she says.

With a nod to today’s lifestyle, The Julia has a presence on Facebook and Instagram, but Rouse isn’t giving up.

“I think there will always be value in a brick-and-mortar store,” she says.

To view more of photographer Terah Wilson’s work, go to www.terahwilson.weebly.com.