Longaberger Building, Newark, Ohio, 1997

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The Longaberger Building - Newark, Ohio

I want you to know, as an Ohioan, I can assure you, this IS the most important place in Ohio

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Ohio's famous ‘Big Basket’ building in Newark, long the seven-story corporate headquarters of the Longaberger Co., a maker of baskets, pottery, and other household items.

The Longaberger Building

If there’s one thing Dave Longaberger could do well, it was dream big. If there’s another thing he could do better, it was making those dreams come true. He thought so big he took his family’s basket-making business he founded in 1973 in Dresden, Ohio, and turned it into a Fortune 500 company. In 1997, he opened the company’s headquarters in Newark, Ohio, a $30-million-dollar, 180,000-square-foot, seven-story office building known as The Big Basket. This is an awesome example of novelty architecture – where the building resembles the product the business sells. When I visited last July, I was all alone. Longaberger had long ago left the building, and plans for a hotel conversion fell through. The property’s fate is tied up in litigation. In the late 1990s, however, such a state would have been unthinkable. Longaberger had tens of thousands of associates selling millions of baskets a year, in a business model described as a cross between Tupperware and Amway. Collectors could hardly stop at one, and in 2000, Longabergers served as “swag baskets” at the Academy Awards. That year was the company’s peak, with a billion dollars in sales, though nobody knew it was the beginning of the end. The next year, 9/11 happened, and the economy was jolted into recession. Tastes changed. A decade later, sales were down 90 percent. The company left family ownership, and by 2016, bailed on the Big Basket. In 2018, Chapter 11 bankruptcy – where the idea is to reorganize – turned into Chapter 7, where the idea is to go out of business. Longaberger, a company that stirred such pride here, was no more. The intellectual assets were purchased the next year, and you can still buy Longaberger products, or spend hours on eBay browsing for them. Explaining the company’s collapse can be bewildering. For many, it’s simple: They trace it to the 1999 death of the company’s driving force, Dave Longaberger, who was just 64. The Big Basket serves as a tribute to him, and to the pride so many took in making, selling, and buying the baskets. Yes, it’s empty, and that’s sad, but it’s such a joyful creation, you can’t help but smile. This basket is one for the bucket list. #retrologist (at Longaberger Basket, Newark Ohio) https://www.instagram.com/p/CiqQI2yOwoU/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Hi hello I’ve seen the basket building in-person many times. I don’t live too far from it. It’s for sale/lease right now. It used to be the administrative headquarters for the longaberger basket company, but has since ceased all operations. The baskets are still highly collectable here in Ohio but idk about anywhere else. There’s your basket trivia for the day:)

AHHH I LOVE THIS!! I would love to see it in person one day and maybe get a basket myself! I hope you’re having a wonderful day. 💓

NBBJ / Longaberger Basket Building / 1997 / Ohio, the United States

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souce:

https://dresdenbuzz.com/2019/10/25/hundreds-tour-former-longaberger-corporate-office-building/

Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: Longaberger Gingerbread House Mold Pottery 1996 Country Cabin Christmas Vintage.

Jessica Spires combines love of art and business

MILLERSPORT – “I was a boisterous artist,” stated Jessica Spires. “A loud dresser. I wrote plays and had friends perform them. I painted and sketched all the time. My grade card always came home with ‘talks in class.’ I loved music and the arts. Sang in the choir. I dreamed about being a pop star like Cyndi Lauper, Boy George, Madonna, Diamond Dave. MTV generation. I loved getting ideas for art and taking in all the music,” recalled for former Zanesville resident. “At 16,” she continued, “I worked as a waitress in a hotel dinner/bar. We had a singer/songwriter guy come in and perform on the weekends. I loved listening to him. The idea of being able to write songs on a guitar seemed perfect. I could share art that way. He showed me a few chords. But I didn’t end up with my own guitar until I was 23. A coworker was selling it cheap. But a few years later I sold it and bought a cheap acoustic at the local music store and learned a few songs. I’m still a hack when it comes to playing but I love all things guitars.” Today, Spires owns and operates her own business — Guitar Parts Factory. “Textbooks, household items, motorcycle parts, skateboards, art and guitars – I tried selling it all on eBay,” she said. “And I had some luck, but nothing was more interesting than guitars. Especially when I got a Fender guitars dealership in 2003. I am a mega-fan. Technology from the 50s and 60s that really needed little change all these years. Leo Fender and this American success story really captured me.” Spires graduated from Philo High School in 1992, then Ohio University in 2001. “I set out to be an art teacher,” she said. “I worked at the Longaberger basket factory while I put myself through school. I decided later to switch to political science, the goal being to live in Athens, Ohio, and be a political science professor. “I started selling textbooks on half.com in 1999,” she added, “and realized I had some promise in internet sales. Changing my major a few times, I ended up with tons of credits and years in school and couldn’t afford textbooks. I bought mine by buying and selling to classmates. I used the new technology of half.com as an outlet to buy and sell, which then led me to eBay. After earning my political science degree, I quit the basket factory and felt done with college. I opened a little skateboard, art and music store.” Which, of course, meant guitars. “I can’t really imagine working in any other industry. I also love supporting the arts and musicians. Listening to live music and the local bars and restaurants and checking out their guitars is certainly my kind of fun. Recently my husband has been playing around the Buckeye Lake area more. It’s fun getting to know more of the local musicians and getting out of the shop.” “I’ve spent my life as a professional musician,” said her husband, David Spires, a Nashville Road musician and songwriter. “In all my travels, I’ve never met anyone who knows more about guitar parts than Jessica. She loves representing the classic American brand of Fender, but her knowledge incorporates the best the industry has to offer.” “I leave the guitar playing to him and I collect, learn about, and sell guitars,” Jessica said. “I take out the trash, build a website, ship the parts, answer spec questions by email, import parts – whatever needs done in a 12-hour day.” https://ift.tt/dI4Egak https://ift.tt/Pwq57CF

The Longaberger Basket Building - Newark, Ohio

Why am I seeing the Longaberger Basket building everywhere again

GODDESS pieces hang outside the former Longaberger headquarters in Newark Ohio.

*distant Yogizilla noises getting louder*

[Image description The Longaberger building which is shaped like a picnic basket]