“When one door closes, many more open.” We’re sitting in the Ice Plant Restaurant on 342 Stoney Hill Road, Greensboro and there are doors in place of plaster on every wall. Some are burnished, some show multiple layers of paint, some are salvaged from the old brick Gabler home that sits next door; all are family heirlooms. They make a fine-grained backdrop to the many old photos that march across the walls that tell the story of Greensboro, from the pottery, steamboat and packet boat days to the families who have lived here for generations and have kept the spirit of the old Ice House – and Greensboro alive.
Lisa Rumble Miller laughed when I asked her to hold up the generous Ice Plant coffee cup that never runs empty until the last crumbs of homemade cake or pie are eaten. It would be my first shot for this story about a remarkable woman that until now, I’ve only known for the good food I’ve eaten here whenever I’ve stopped by. When Sheri Garlick emailed in her I Love This Community Nomination, she let us know that “Lisa is the epitome of hometown pride!” and added an impressive list of things she’s gotten started, gotten done, or improved upon as a lifelong resident of the Greensboro community.
Exhibit A: Those veteran banners I passed driving down Stoney Hill Road that hang from every available pole in Glassworks at the edge of Greensboro and throughout the old town itself.
“It bothered me that we didn’t have banners like Masontown and Pt. Marion did,” Lisa said. And with that, in 2021, the banner project was born. As secretary of Greensboro Borough Council, she asked the council “do you mind if I do this?” and was off and running. She began getting the word out to veterans and their families for orders and coordinating Fast Signs in Uniontown to make banners “with a big focus on the photo. I wanted to make sure they could be seen.”
With Commissioner Mike Belding officiating, and the Greensboro VFW and Fire Department leading the charge at the kickoff ceremony and parade that year, “we saw more people in town that day than in decades. The Carmichaels band came and so did the Waynesburg VFW color guard. It was wonderful.”
“Seeing is believing,” and suddenly other towns wanted banners to honor their veterans. Lisa shared the banner project, first in Bobtown, “then Helen Butalla got it going in Carmichaels through the Women’s Civic Club, and Bobtown helped Mt. Morris. We keep putting them up here as the orders come in my husband and son get them hung. We now have 200 banners in the borough. I would have been happy with 50! We’ve run out of poles around town so we’ll keep putting them up the hill. This is where my heart is.”
Lisa Rumble grew up in a family with deep roots to the land and the history of Greensboro. “The Rumbles were potters. I have a piece of Greensboro pottery that my great uncle William ‘Smiley’ Rumble put his initials on. When I was younger I didn’t care much about things like that. Now I want to keep as much history alive as I can. This town is my heart and soul.”
The Rumbles were also farmers. Their farm on Old Dairy Road produced plenty of produce in its day that got sold around town and Lisa remembers: “Rumbles were still riding on horseback in the 1970s.”
Father Jim Rumble was also working as a strip miner with a fleet of trucks and Lisa remembers going on the strip jobs with her dad in the truck and learning to do the paperwork. She had a talent for organizing that plays a role in everything she decides to do. She grew up in the golden age of a thriving, working class Greensboro filled with stores to shop in, plenty of things for kids to do, and a family that worked hard and cared for others. “My parents had golden hearts. They went over and above to help everybody, and they never let us quit anything we started. My dance instructor Linda Butcho had a dance school, and for her can’t was not an option. Betty Walker, my swim instructor was the same. I learned nothing is impossible. You just have to work at it.”
One side of the menus on the tables tell “The Ice Plant Story” with a timeline of the original business that the Gabler family owned and operated in the 1890s, when water was pumped from the river to the basement rooms in winter to be frozen and stored. “They also manufactured soda and ice cream. I really loved that old building!” So did the community. Later the Gablers added a dance hall with things to eat and “folks came from miles around to socialize.”
Some Gabler family history is captured in the photos on the wall. When daughter Selma Gabler married Bob Mavin they made ice in the winter, ran a custard stand on Rt. 88 in the summer and kept the family business going. One old photo from the 1950s shows their daughter Peggy in saddle shoes, striking a pose at work. The doors to the businesses in the Ice Plant would close through the years due to time, accidents and disasters, but as the menu notes, “Hence, when one door closes, many more open.”
Lisa opened her phone to show me a snapshot of the Ice Plant in 2011 when it was her restaurant. This was before it was destroyed on January 5, 2014, and I suddenly realized this iconic image is the perfect segue for the old photo article I will write to finish the story that Lisa has to tell. She and husband Curt were the owners when an electrical short in a cooler smoldered into the 19th century horsehair plastered walls and the old building was completely gutted. When the state fire marshal ordered it torn down, “I was devastated. It was really heartbreaking. I didn’t know if I’d ever rebuild,” Lisa said.
But the spirit of being part of a community gathering-place was still alive in Lisa and her extended family of hard workers. That summer, the annual car show happened around the pavilion that was still standing on the grounds. By 2018, she and husband Curt were busy installing walls on the pavilion and starting anew.
“July 27 will be our 28th annual car show on this spot. We’ve had tethered balloon rides, horse and buggy rides and this year we’re adding a craft vendors show. I’m always thinking ahead, I’m never done.”
We’re sitting in the refurbished pavilion/dining room that is now one part of the expansive layout of the restaurant that includes a kitchen, attached restrooms and a new storage area behind the kitchen. As we talked, the bustle of a family that works together surrounded us as customers come in for lunch. When I’d arrived just after the doors opened at 11 a.m., Lisa was busy at the cash register sorting out the details of a new system. Her mom, JoAnn, came out from the kitchen to say hello and later, husband Curt, an electrical contractor, and son Jonathan, 25, stopped by to see how things were going. When Lisa finally sat down she filled me in. “Mom’s 82 and she’s here every day, she bakes all the pies, my sister Bobbie makes all the cakes, sister Sheri is a server. Most of the staff have been here forever, they’re like family. But we can always use new people. ”
Daughter Alexandra, 28 is a respiratory therapist at WVU and like Jonathan, still finds time to help out, Lisa added. “They grew up in this place – it’s part of our life.”
That life took a dramatic shift on August 30, 2023 when this high-energy woman felt that something “just wasn’t right” while on a shopping trip to Walmart. That feeling turned into triple bypass heart surgery and a miraculous recovery. “I had no idea that I was having heart problems. The doctors call me a miracle patient.”
Lucky for Greensboro, the miracle patient who “can’t sit around and whine” only missed two monthly Borough meetings, she added with a grin. “I’ve been in therapy for five months now and it’s all good. I just have to learn to pace myself. Which is hard to do sometimes!”
So what doors are about to open next? “We’re calling it the Greensboro Mon Township Holiday and Events Committee.” This new committee is open to all residents of the towns and township who want to work together to bring in new events and support what’s already in the works going forward for this unique, tourist and business friendly corner of Greene County. “We want to include everyone. There is so much potential here to bring back some of what I remember we had growing up. Curt and Jonathan brought Curt’s family electrical business here from Uniontown in 2021. There’s room to grow in Greensboro and Greene County.”
This is a great article. The food is always delicious.