The towering brick buildings and picturesque view of the horizon that can be seen from Cambridge’s Wheeling Avenue only scrape the surface of what the quaint town has to offer.
Alongside the bustling road sits Black Cat Vintage, a vintage clothing boutique that opened in June 2021. The two-story boutique houses over 55 unique vendors, offering a wide array of goods; from vintage clothing and antiques of all kinds to macrame and vinyl records (old and new), Black Cat Vintage has it all.
After earning a bachelor’s degree in business in December 2020, owner Paige Moore knew she wanted to open a business of her own. It had been part of her plan for as long as she can remember.
“I always saw myself one day doing something on my own,” Moore says. “I would rather answer to customers in the community and to my vendors than to corporate America.”
Before Moore opened the door to her physical shop, she opened a virtual one. She first began selling vintage clothing on Depop, a second-hand fashion marketplace app. She found she had a knack for antique hunting and business management. Moore’s online success led to her idea of running a vintage store in real life, and she only saw the success continue to grow.
Cambridge’s tight-knit community loves Black Cat Vintage, and Black Cat Vintage loves the community right back. Moore says her fellow locals are one of her favorite parts of running a small business; she has a couple regular customers who she specifically keeps in mind when antique hunting for her own booth.
“It’s really fun to bounce ideas off of other people and feel like I’m part of something,” Moore says. “The downtown community in Cambridge is really close-knit when it comes to small businesses.”
Being a one-of-a-kind shop in Cambridge naturally draws in plenty of the natives, but Moore says many of her customers come in from out of town. Not only are residents of surrounding counties stopping in, but people are making the drive out of state for a look around Black Cat Vintage.
“It’s not your typical antique mall,” Moore says. “It’s definitely a vintage store.”
Moore hopes to see her business expand in the years to come; whether it’s staying close to home and opening a new location in Marietta or taking a larger leap and opening a location in Pennsylvania, this is just the beginning for Moore and Black Cat Vintage.