Ivana Mercuri spent 28 years selling gowns at 19 N. Centre St. in downtown Pottsville, the seat of Schuylkill County in Pennsylvania’s anthracite country. She bought the store from its original owner in 1994, after starting out with a general clothing shop, Ivana’s Fashions, at Market and Second streets. The Centre Street address had held a bridal business for more than 75 years by the time she closed it.
In May 2022 she moved the whole operation a mile and a half, to 161 Glenworth Road. The address still says Pottsville; the property is technically in North Manheim Township. It is the house Mercuri had lived in for 40 years, and the store now fills a fully remodeled garage attached to it. She had 6,000 square feet on three floors downtown. She has considerably less than that now, which was the point — she wanted a smaller, more intimate boutique. When she renovated, she pulled the tin ceiling out of the Centre Street store and reinstalled it in the new space. The township’s only conditions were that the business stay attached to the residence and that there be parking for four.
“I’m starting all over again — a new beginning for Juliette,” Mercuri told WFMZ at the ribbon-cutting. She said that first prom season at the new place went well.
What that means if you’re shopping for prom
This is a two-person shop working out of four parking spaces. Mercuri went from four full-time and two part-time employees downtown to two full-timers from the original crew, with her longtime tailor working as an independent contractor. Nothing about that setup rewards walking in on a Saturday afternoon with three friends. Call 570-622-1066 and book a time.
The hours posted on the store’s own site are short: Wednesday and Thursday 1–7, Friday 1–5, Saturday 10–3, closed Sunday through Tuesday. Confirm them when you call — several directory listings, including Yelp, still show the old downtown address and a different schedule. The Centre Street building is now occupied by Bridge 127, the nonprofit that bought it, so the old address will not get you a dress.
On the prom racks, the verified labels are Alyce Paris, Dave & Johnny and Tiffany Designs — all three list this store on their official retailer locators. If you find a style online from a line the shop carries, they will order it in for an in-person fitting, so it is worth arriving with a style number rather than a screenshot. Two things to know up front: the alterations department works on garments bought at Juliette, not on outside purchases, and if your event is out of town, the staff will take measurements for you provided you bring the store name, manufacturer and style number. Tuxedo rental is in-house too, which matters when a couple wants one stop.
Who drives to Glenworth Road
Pottsville Area High School on Elk Avenue is the largest feeder, with roughly 950 students in grades 9–12. Nativity BVM, the Diocese of Allentown school up on Lawtons Hill, runs about 200 across four grades. Past the city line the county splits into small districts — Blue Mountain in Orwigsburg, Schuylkill Haven Area, Minersville Area, North Schuylkill, Pine Grove Area, Tamaqua Area — each sending one prom’s worth of students a year, most of them within a twenty-minute drive on Route 61 or US 209.
The alternative in town is Fairlane Village Mall, a mile north on Route 61, where the anchors are Boscov’s, Kohl’s and T.J. Maxx. That is a different kind of errand. Glenworth Road is the version where someone who has been fitting Schuylkill County families long enough to have done a customer’s christening dress and then her wedding gown pins your hem herself.