I wonder if it might have been different for Pleasant Rowland in Aurora, N.Y., if she had walked into the Fargo Bar at happy hour one evening, bought a round for the house and pulled up a stool to chat. We 'll never know, but I wonder.

Rowland, the Madison entrepreneur and philanthropist who started American Girl and then sold it to Mattel for $700 million, put her two homes in Aurora, a village southwest of Syracuse, up for sale last month.

"My work there is completed, " Rowland told the Wall Street Journal, in a rare, brief interview.

Beginning in 2001, Rowland had sought to revitalize Aurora, where she attended Wells College. She poured millions into the village and the school, but her legacy, as she departs, is mixed. Many in the village are grateful, but many others echo the sentiment reflected in an editorial cartoon that ran May 21 in the Syracuse Post-Standard.

The cartoon showed several children dressed in an American Girl manner, seated at a table with an adult and one empty chair. The chair had a name on it: Pleasant Rowland. The adult at the table is saying: "Is she gone yet? "

That cartoon appeared nearly seven years to the day after Rowland first addressed a packed meeting house in Aurora to tell residents about herself and outline her plans to buy and renovate buildings and otherwise rejuvenate a village she had fallen in love with upon arriving at Wells in 1958.

"It was beautiful, " Rowland said that night in 2001, speaking of Aurora. "It was timeless, and it became a part of me like no other place in the world ever has. "

Rowland went on to speak of her philanthropy efforts here. "In Madison, " she said, "where my husband Jerry (Frautschi) and I live, I have been responsible for creating many things our community values highly. I founded Concerts on the Square, a series of six free summer concerts on the beautiful grounds of our State Capitol. My efforts are largely responsible for building and sustaining the Madison Children 's Museum. I have joined Jerry in a gift to the city he loves, where his family has lived for six generations. We have provided funds to build the Overture Center, an arts and cultural complex for Madison, a community rich in artistic resources, but lacking in artistic facilities. "

I wrote a column early on about Rowland 's efforts in Aurora, a column that was reprinted in the Aurora Citizen newspaper, and perhaps as a result I received regular updates over the years from residents monitoring the revitalization process, which quickly became controversial.

To her dismay, I suspect, Rowland became a polarizing figure. One segment appreciated her investment in Aurora (the Post-Standard once estimated it at $40 million) while another felt Rowland was altering not just the face of the village, but its soul.

And while Rowland made her share of personal appearances in Aurora, hosting a fund-raiser at the library and arriving at the dedication of the renovated historic Aurora Inn in a stagecoach, she remained to most locals a distant, unknowable figure.

"The most frequently heard complaint about Rowland has been her lack of accessibility, " the Aurora Citizen editorialized in 2005. "Rowland may be private, but she has chosen to make very public real estate purchases in the village through her foundation. She can 't have it both ways. Rowland may be shy, but her approach comes across as condescending. She 's an out-of-state resident... who has more decision-making power than anyone else in the village, yet she refuses to talk with those who disagree with her. "

For many in Aurora, the tipping point came when Rowland 's foundation purchased the Fargo Bar, a treasured dive, and gentrified it.

Regulars were angry, but I bet Rowland could have disarmed them if she had shown up. Preferably more than once, and without an entourage. Buy a few drinks, explain what she was trying to do. It may have been too late by then, and not her style in any case. Rowland is famous for guarding her privacy, and not giving interviews. But in a tiny village like Aurora, a few beers and a spirited give and take in the Fargo would have been worth more than a good notice in the New York Times.

Let me conclude by admitting I am probably the last person who should be giving Pleasant Rowland advice. I met her almost 30 years ago, when we were accidental seat mates on a flight into Madison. I was a beginning writer and she said she was starting a magazine, aimed at girls. Would I be interested in writing an article for $50 explaining football to girls?

I wrote the article, and we got along well, though I recall at one point asking why she was eliminating half her potential audience by targeting only girls. The conversation crossed my mind two decades later when I heard she was selling her company, targeted at girls, for $700 million. What do I know? Still, I think she could have won hearts in the Fargo. It 's hard to warm up to somebody you don 't know.

Contact Doug Moe at 608-252-6446 or dmoe@madison.com.