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owners of Doylestown’s Head over Heels boutique say they’re staying put, for now. By CrissA SHOEMAKER DEBREE STAFF WRITER For three months, Dorothy Darrah and Liz Hirschmann told customers their upscale clothing and accessories boutique, Head over Heels, was going out of business. They launched a clearance sale and sold most of most of the fixtures at their Doylestown store. But the borough’s longstanding dispute with the Bucks County Water Sewer Authority has changed all that. Unable to connect to the borough's sew ers, the incoming tenant — an ice cream parlor and dessert shop — has at least tem porarily backed out of plans to take over West State Street store. So Head over Heels is staying — at least for now. And Darrah and Hirschmann are more than happy about it. “We love Doylestown,” Hirschmann said. “We love the people. We love every thing about the building.” Several months ago, however, Vince Marinelli, owner of the Taste of Philly soft pretzel bakery across from the boutique, approached the mother-daughter pair with a “very generous” offer to buy or lease the building. At the time, Hirschmann said, she was pregnant with her third child. And in addi tion to Doylestown, Head over Heels has six other stores, in Warrington, Harleysville, Lederach, Center Valley, Skippack and Blue Bell. Between the pregnancy and feeling a bit stretched with seven stores, the pair said it was the right time to leave. Initial plans called for Head over Heels to close May 1, and for Sweet Pea and Annie B’s to open June 15 after minor reno vations to the space, which formerly housed Kenny’s News Agency. But the sewer dispute has held up build ing permits for new businesses wanting to move into the borough. Under an agree ment reached last month between the authority and the borough, the authority has until Aug. 6 to tell businesses if they can connect to the sewer system. Whether the dessert shop would have been allowed to connect is unknown. But Marinelli said waiting until August to find out wasn’t an option for either party. “We had to secure our lines,” Darrah said. “We were saying to the ice cream peo ple, we can’t wait any longer.” Marinelli said he still hopes to move into the Head over Heels space early next year, although the lease agreement has been ter minated. Hirschmann and Darrah didn’t rule that out, but said they’ve already placed orders with vendors through the holiday shopping season. “We don’t know what we'll be doing in a year,” Darrah said. “We can’t promise him that. There’s a probability, but am not banking on that. In a year, a lot of things can change.” Marinelli, who also owns Sweet Pea shops in Newtown and Drexel Hill, said his next store will be in Doylestown, even if he can’t reach a new agreement with Darrah and Hirschmann. “We are still going to put an ice cream shop in Doylestown,” he said. “One way or another.” Crissa Shoemaker DeBree can be reached at 215-345-3186 or cshoemaker@phillyBurbs.com. RICH KENNEDY / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Dorothy Darrah (left) and her daughter Liz Hirschmann are back in business at their State Street store Head over Heels. An ice cream parlor and dessert shop was going to take over the location, but was not able to hook up to the borough’s sewer system.
Newspaper Details
Doylestown Intelligencer
Doylestown, Pennsylvania, US
Mon, Jul 27, 2009
Page 20
Full Page
Clipped by
Vincent M.
USA 09 Sep 2026
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