The Murphy Way

Murphy Jewelers, Whitehall, PA

OWNERS: Kim Murphy, Mallory Murphy; FOUNDED: 1923; TOP BRANDS: Rolex, Hearts on Fire, Gabriel & Co., John Hardy, Roberto Coin; INTERIOR DESIGN: Mallory Murphy, Kim Murphy, Annie Murphy; OPENED FEATURED LOCATION: 2020; Architect: Stephen Whitford; AREA: 4,050 square-foot showroom; 5,500 total square feet; EMPLOYEES: 30 full-time; 5 part-time; SHOWCASESS: Artco

WHEN KIM MURPHY and her daughter, Mallory, were designing the newest location of Murphy Jewelers in Lehigh Acres, PA, they were faced with the occasional fraught moment.

One in particular stands out in memory. While shopping for showcases, they learned that they had selected a particular dark finish that had not yet been purchased by a single Artco client before them.

It looked like a dark reclaimed wood —but was it a little too dark, they wondered? “It was a little scary,” Kim says. It can be tough to envision what a whole store of showcases will look like based on a 2-inch sample. “I lost a lot of sleep over that tiny little square,” Mallory recalls.

They compensated by choosing a lighter finish for the floor. And when the cases were installed, they were glad they’d taken that chance. It came together beautifully.

Kim Murphy and her daughter, Mallory Murphy, designed the showroom together.

The Murphys’ original location is in downtown Pottsville, PA. They also have stores in Hamburg, PA, and at the Lehigh Valley Mall’s Outdoor Lifestyle Center in Whitehall, PA.

The Lehigh Valley store, their newest, was built in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when they were beset by shortages and delays in materials.

“I remember the lightbulbs in particular were from overseas,” Mallory says. “We started to see shortages in the lightbulbs first. And then the supply chain really started to trickle, and we opened later than we planned, but somehow it all worked out.”

Fortunately, the mother-daughter team enjoy designing and renovating jewelry stores and were able to look past whatever obstacles came their way with the help of architect Stephen Whitford and the advice of their cousin, Annie Murphy, an interior designer.

The location, in a lifestyle shopping center adjacent to a popular regional mall, couldn’t be better. Their neighbors are a comfortable mix of national brands, including Apple, Williams and Sonoma and Pottery Barn, as well as locally owned coffee shops and a brewery restaurant.

Part of their space had been the previous site of that Apple store, and when they removed the 70-foot wall of glass that had been the modern facade, the project looked daunting. “You could stand outside and see it was a big empty space,” Kim says. “A little intimidating. It was a big area.” And also not what they wanted aesthetically.

They decided to incorporate in the new location the exposed bricks they had found when they remodeled their downtown Pottsville location. “An old factory warehouse is what we were thinking for the façade,” Mallory says. “We started with metal grid windows then decided we wanted brick elements and reclaimed wood.”

Once they’d decided on the exterior theme, they kept it going on the inside.

The store mimics an old factory building with features like tumbled brick, thick stonework, factory-grid windows, reclaimed wood and gas lanterns. Inside, there’s modern, open-air metal casework, a cozy fireplace, an 86-inch TV and a bar for customers to enjoy a Yuengling beer from the hometown of Pottsville.

One of their favorite elements of the new store is the bridal bar, where clients can shop for an engagement ring in a relaxed environment, as if sitting down at a trendy big city bar, complete with bar stools and a stone countertop.

Metal-grid windows, brick elements and reclaimed wood combine with a minimalist aesthetic to suggest an old factory-warehouse vibe.

The new store also features a 500-square foot Rolex corner. With rich natural materials such as marble, raked limestone, leather, and walnut, the corner offers an impressive setting to discover a wide range of models. The corner also includes a window into their in-house certified watchmaker’s office, offering the opportunity to observe servicing first-hand.

An interior feature that ties all three of their stores together is the warm sage green walls they like to call Murphy green. “We just knew in our hearts we had to incorporate green,” as a nod to their Irish heritage, Kim says.

The new store opened at the end of 2020.

“Customers and sales reps always say this store is amazing,” says Kim. “You’re never sure how it’s going to turn out until it’s finished.”

Murphy Jewelers was founded in 1913 when Frank J. Murphy opened a store in downtown Pottsville and traveled door to door in a horse and buggy repairing schoolhouse clocks. Frank opened his business as Jewelry and Optometry, where he not only sold jewelry but also made and prescribed eyeglasses as a graduate optometrist.

When Frank’s son, Francis, joined the family business after serving in the Air Force during World War II, he focused solely on jewelry. He was later joined by his son, Patrick, who graduated from America’s oldest watchmaking and jewelry school in Lancaster, PA (Bowman’s Technical School).

When Patrick, who died unexpectedly in 2019, joined the business with his wife, Kim, in 1970, there were eight jewelry stores in downtown Pottsville, a town with a population of 25,000, making it an extremely competitive environment. The couple expanded the store, brought in unique jewelry, and handmade all of their displays with the help of family and friends.

Mallory, who represents the fourth generation, has always been focused on a jewelry career. “I write the intro for the Murphy Magazine we send out in the fall,”
Mallory says. “And in the last one, there was a photo of me in first grade with a jewelers’ loupe. Now I can’t even imagine a time when I thought about doing something else.”

Her parents provided much of her career inspiration. “I think the most important thing that I learned from my parents was simply watching them work insanely hard,” she says. “I learned there are no shortcuts or lucky breaks to success; put the hard work in and it’ll pay off. No job was beneath them. I try to live by that mentality today.

“I also grew up watching them transition the company from a small mom-and-pop downtown store into three thriving stores across Pennsylvania. The knowledge I gained from witnessing that growth from the sidelines and hearing the conversations at the dinner table is better than any MBA I could’ve received.”

Mallory’s husband, Cody Frick, who formerly worked as an electrical engineer, is now the Lehigh store’s watchmaker after two years of intensive training at the Lititz Watch Technicum, where he earned a SAWTA degree.

Mallory values the history and family connection and now dreams about passing that same interest along to her daughter, Rory.

“It’s in our DNA,” she says.

Five Cool Things About Murphy Jewelers

1. YUENGLING ON TAP. The Murphys have incorporated a bar into their stores ever since they built their Hamburg, PA, location in 2004. Champagne, soft drinks and wine are available, but only local Yuengling beer is on tap. The Murphy and Yuengling families have been friends for generations and neighbors for 35 years.

2. THE MURPHY BOW. “Our signature Murphy Bow has become synonymous with our family business over the last few decades,” Mallory says. “It’s something our customers look for on special occasions, even telling their loved ones, ‘You better get me a Murphy Bow!’ We often hear stories of families hiding the box under the Christmas tree or inside a bag so as not to spoil a surprise.”

3. MURPHY UNIVERSITY. Hiring well is essential to running three locations successfully, the Murphys say. They hire for personality and company culture, then train extensively with a program they call Murphy University, a five-day course on “the Murphy Way” that ends with a challenging written exam. “Our staff loves it and it’s proven to be a real team-bonding experience,” Mallory says.

4. MURPHY MAGAZINE. Murphy Magazine is mailed to customers every fall and is available in the store, too. The hands-on process takes months. They set up a photography studio in the Hamburg office and take photos of every piece of jewelry featured in the magazine. “One of our team members or I is the hand model on feature pages (or my husband if a male hand model is needed!), and we write every word of the magazine in-house as well,” Mallory says. “Our customers really look forward to receiving it every fall and some even tell me they save all the copies over the years!”

5. THROWBACK THURSDAY. The Murphys recently discovered a collection of old advertisements and newspaper clippings they’d never seen before, dating to 1913. “It’s brought a whole new meaning to #tbt (throwback Thursday) social media posts as we’re able to give customers a glimpse into our storied past,” Mallory says. “It’s interesting to see our earliest advertisements signed off as ‘jeweler and optometrist,’ as well as ads telling trolley patrons to stop off the trolley and get their watches repaired. We even unearthed an announcement in a 1913 newspaper stating our great-grandfather opened up a watchmaker’s shop!”

PHOTO GALLERY (9 IMAGES)