On the morning of June 25, 2023, fire tore through the Fountain Court Shopping Center on Route 611 in Pocono Township, Monroe County. Crews from Monroe, Northampton and Lehigh counties, plus Warren County in New Jersey, fought it, and 611 was shut in both directions for most of the day. By that evening the two-story center was declared a total loss. Elegant Bridal was one of the tenants, alongside a Subway, a dental office and a nail salon.
Gowns that customers had already bought were inside a building no one was permitted to enter. Co-owner Alvin Williams said at the time that his daughter’s wedding — and a bride’s gown sitting in the store — were a month away, with no way to know the condition of any of it. Owner Mattie Williams reopened in early December 2023, six months after the fire, in a new space off Route 611 across from the St. Luke’s Monroe Campus in Stroud Township, with volunteers helping on the construction. Everything on the racks now was bought after the fire.
Check the address before you drive
The street line on older listings, including the 3180 Route 611 address attached to this record, points at the Bartonsville building that burned. The store’s own site gives the current address as 106 Plaza 611 Lane, Stroudsburg, PA 18360 — the Plaza 611 development at Route 611 and Wigwam Road, in the same Bartonsville retail stretch, a few minutes south of where it used to be. Phone is unchanged at (570) 688-9594. Call before going.
One dress style per school, and 13 schools on the list
The shop registers every prom gown it sells against the buyer’s school, and says it keeps 13 schools on that register so no two girls from the same school leave with the same style. That rule carries more weight here than it would in a small district. Pocono Mountain West in Pocono Summit alone enrolled 1,486 students in 2023–24, and its sister school, Pocono Mountain East, is eight miles away in Swiftwater. Add Stroudsburg, the East Stroudsburg Area district’s two high schools — South in East Stroudsburg and North, which sits up in Dingmans Ferry with roughly 940 students — and Pleasant Valley over in Brodheadsville, and a popular style can turn up four times in one gym. The staff also say they track individual schools’ dress rules, which is worth asking about before ordering anything with a cutout or an open back.
Brands and what else is in the building
Jovani, Terani and Jasz all list this store on their official retailer locators. The shop’s own designer pages also name Abby Paris, Lucci Lu and Stella Couture for prom, plus House of Wu’s Fiesta, Maravilla and Quince lines for quinceañera and sweet sixteen. Beyond prom, the store runs as a full formalwear stop:
- Bridal, bridesmaid and mother-of-the-bride gowns, with bridesmaid and mothers’ sizing quoted from 0 to 44
- Tuxedos, including communion and confirmation sizes, not just groom and groomsmen
- Veils, headpieces, jewelry, shoes, capes and shawls
- Discontinued clearance gowns, marked 30–75 percent off per the store’s site
Who runs it
Mattie Williams was an accountant in New York City before moving to Pennsylvania in 1990 and opening Elegant Boutique in the Pocono Outlet on Ann Street in Stroudsburg, selling sportswear and career suits. Bridal came later, after customers asked for it. The business moved to the Tannersville area after about six years on Ann Street, then to Fountain Court, where it stayed until the fire. It is run by Williams with her husband Alvin and their daughters Lydia Schultz and Tamara Williams-Hood.
Online reviews are split. Across WeddingWire, Yellow Pages and Yelp the store averages in the middle and low ranges on small review counts; the positive ones describe close attention from the owner and staff, and the negative ones cluster around alterations — pricing that came in above the initial estimate, appointment waits, and a tailor available only certain days. Those complaints predate the fire and the new location, but they are the pattern worth raising directly when you book, along with what alterations will cost and when the seamstress works.