When Jeremy Angus was named director of the Ambridge Area Chamber of Commerce this year, he took on the job with the energy and enthusiasm that perhaps only a 20-year-old can muster.

He tackled debt issues, generated new membership and moved the chamber into new offices.

"People were all excited," he said. "They were like, 'You're young; you're energetic; you have new ideas; what are you going to do?' They saw me as their help, and now my hands are tied to the wall."

Why?

Because Old Economy Village along Route 65 in Ambridge will not reopen after its normal winter hiatus because of state budget constraints.

While Old Economy is not a huge economic generator, it has a profound influence on the town and its appeal.

"One of my first thoughts when I took this job was, 'How am I going to promote Old Economy?' " Mr. Angus said. "I saw it as my gateway to get things I wanted for this community. Now all the ideas I had with that just fizzled away."

Old Economy was built in the early 19th century by the Harmonists, a communal religious group, and has been preserved as a state historic site. Its architecture is disarmingly simple, with dormitories and workshops made of red brick and white-painted wood forming neat squares. The neighborhood around it is dotted with other Harmonist buildings, which are used by businesses or are private homes.

The village hosted school tours and casual visitors and offered demonstrations of period crafts at several popular festivals each year. It did not generate huge tourist traffic, but "it's a huge basis of our town," Mr. Angus said.

Ironically, the closure comes just before a long-planned project to rework Merchant Street, the town's business district, and create an entrance off Route 65 at the north end of town, making access to Old Economy more convenient.

That work is part of the Northern Ambridge Redevelopment Project, a massive mixed-use project that is slowly transforming that end of town.

Developer Rob Moltoni has long noted Old Economy as one of several driving reasons for the project's location. It is designed with complementary housing and businesses adjacent to the historic district, and a business park created in some of the existing industrial space bears the name "New Economy."

"It's disappointing," Mr. Moltoni's local partner, Bill Sutton, said. "We never saw it coming. I don't think many people did."

Mr. Sutton said he does not see the closure having a direct economic impact on the Northern Ambridge project.

"Our development wasn't necessarily built around Old Economy, but in a way it was," he said, struggling to express the historic site's trickle-down impact.

Mr. Sutton is not considering that the closure is permanent, however.

"We're going to see what we can do to help and support it and see if the decision can be changed," he said. "I don't think all is lost yet."

Demolition and remediation in the 22-square-block project are nearly complete, and the Beaver County Emergency Medical Services center is opening next month as the Northern Ambridge project's first new building.

Mr. Sutton believes that the Northern Ambridge project would provide a boost to Old Economy, if it reopens.

"I think the more activity there is around something like that, the more attention it gets," he said. "There are 25-30,000 people through there every year, and we really thought that would increase thanks to the traffic we will generate."

Mr. Sutton is not alone in seeing the closure as temporary.

"I just can't imagine it staying closed," said Debbie Thornton, owner of the Old Economy Inn bed and breakfast in a Harmonist house across from the village's visitors center.

That's one reason she is not terribly worried about the impact on her business, which she opened in October. Another is that few of her customers come to town because of Old Economy.

"It's mostly people visiting relatives or coming into town for a reunion," she said. "You have many school kids who come to see the village, and kids are not typically the ones staying in bed-and-breakfasts."

Ms. Thornton also noted that the neighborhood will not lose its unique character just because the village closes.

"It's still a historic site, even if it's temporarily closed," she said.

Even so, Ms. Thornton's story may be the perfect of example of Old Economy's subtle impact.

A Minnesotan married to a Sewickley native, she moved to the area with him in 1995. She found Ambridge's historic district by following the Old Economy sign and was "totally taken" by what she saw.

"I was confused seeing all these historic buildings that were privately owned, with just normal people living in them," she said. She eventually decided to place a bid when she learned that some property was going up for auction.

"It was exciting to me to think that I could actually have ownership of one of these buildings," she said.

"It's sort of a hidden draw," Mr. Angus said. "People are not going to bring a tour bus in and go shop in downtown Ambridge. But a lot of people have memories of Old Economy from their childhood, visiting when they were in school."

Old Economy gives people another reason to come back to Ambridge, he said. "[Old Economy's closing] won't hurt us tomorrow. But a year from now, if it stays closed, we're definitely going to feel it."

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