PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — For one Aroostook County eye care practice, it really is all in the family.
The third-generation Family Eye Care/Mavor Optical of Caribou will officially open a new Presque Isle location on Wednesday, Jan. 18, and has its sights set on the fourth generation.
Family Eye Care optometrist Dr. Craig Small and his wife, Jane Mavor-Small of Mavor Optical, discussed their expansion Jan. 4 at the bright, newly renovated 491 Main St. office, which features white walls and fixtures.
“There was a need,” said Dr. Small. “Dr. Tompkins had retired and we were seeing a lot of his patients. Also, our girls will be coming back in two years and we will need new space.”
The couple’s two daughters, Abby and Paige, are both enrolled in optometry school and will return to the area to join the nearly 100-year-old family practice.
Ironically, Mavor-Small said, the practice will turn 100 in the year 2020 — “You know, 20/20 vision,” she said with a smile.
The venture will join several other businesses newly located in the heart of downtown. Allegro Cafe opened on Christmas Eve in the former Marston’s location, and Denise’s Creative Touch and the Olde Rustic Attic have left the Aroostook Centre Mall in recent months to relocate to Main Street spaces. Most recently, 491 Main Street has housed Discount Floor Mart and Pioneer Broadband.
“It was the windows that inspired me to take this site,” Mavor-Small said. “I wanted storefront, so I could do the windows.”
The windows feature twinkling lights and winter-themed decorations intermingled with lettering and eyewear-related displays.
“I knew Presque Isle was trying to revitalize its Main Street. The optical store end of it was the deciding factor for me,” Mavor-Small said. “I wanted to be on Main Street to provide an inviting storefront to have people come in and browse.”
She emphasized she wants customers to feel free to stop in anytime, with no appointment necessary, to look over the available frames and ask questions.
Abby Small credited her mother with the wide selection of eyewear. “I used to joke and say that optometry is where fashion meets medicine,” she said. “Mom has really improved the selection, and we have price points for people to have more than one set of frames.”
On the eye care side of the business, Dr. Small said, “We provide complete vision care with state-of-the-art instrumentation, so we can follow pretty much every kind of eye problem a patient has.”
He pointed out he and his associate, Dr. Amy Hebert, are optometrists rather than ophthalmologists; while ophthalmologists are doctors who specialize in eye surgery, optometrists are “kind of like a primary care provider for the eyes,” he said. They treat vision deficiencies and can refer patients to ophthalmologists for specialized care if necessary.
Small is the third generation of his family in the business, which began in 1920 with his grandfather, William Small, who actually worked in a jewelry store in Boston performing engraving and monogramming.
“A jewelry store back then was where you would get your readers,” Small explained. His grandfather was involved in optics during World War I, and got his optometry license in 1920. At first he would set up in a hotel, such as the Vaughan House, and patients would come to him there, but then he moved to office space on the corner of Caribou’s Water and Main streets. He practiced there until 1958, at which point Small’s father took over the practice and stayed until 1972, when the city rerouted Main Street as part of its urban renewal program. The practice then moved to its current location at 37 Herschel St.
The younger Small joined his father in 1985, and in 1988 Mavor-Small developed the optical side of the venture. Once they receive their doctor of optometry degrees, Abby Small and Paige Small will become the fourth generation to serve area patients.
Both are in the same year at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in Worcester, Mass., where they share classes and living quarters. They said they can’t wait to come back to The County to put their studies to use.
“At school, we’re really at the forefront of where optometry is,” Abby said. “Paige and I will graduate in 2019 and be ready to come back to The County with all the latest techniques.”
“I feel very fortunate,” said Paige. “We’re very lucky that we have our parents [behind us]. It’s all about coming back to serve our County.”
Family Eye Care/Mavor Optical offers something else to those studying in the field: It is a teaching facility, where optometry students can serve an externship — a workplace learning experience.
“In their final year, students can come in to work and see patients,” Paige said, adding that the practice has hosted several students over the years. “They’ve said they appreciate the variety of care and patients of all ages that they can serve.”
“It’s like your foundation of practicing,” Abby noted. “It’s exciting that our practice will help develop students to serve our rural community.”
According to Mavor-Small, the practice has inquiries from across the country and all over the world for the four-month rotations, with their latest student expected to arrive Monday, Jan. 9, from Nova Scotia.
All four said they enjoy serving the local area as a family.
“Jane is such a huge, integral part of this practice, in addition to being the love of my life and the mother of my children. I would not be where I am today without her,” said Dr. Small.
Both Mavor-Small and her husband are happy to know their daughters will continue the family’s tradition.
“We were lucky to have them decide that on their own,” said Mavor-Small. “We didn’t influence them; they decided on their own that this is what they wanted to do.”
“We’re fortunate to be able to come back and work with our parents,” said Paige Small.
“The four of us are really a team,” Abby Small added.
Though the office will officially open for business Jan. 18, the family plans a grand opening celebration, complete with a ribbon cutting with the Central Aroostook Chamber of Commerce, on Friday, Feb. 3.
