Inside 1919 Antiques in Bonduel

For those of you who don’t know- I also grew up as a child caught between two worlds. I was raised as a country kid on a small hobby farm where I spent most of my growing up years barefoot in the fields. But when my parents opened their own business in 1989 I became a part-time small town- townie. Occupying myself after school with other local children by having snowball fights on the giant pile of city snow plowed up behind our building or wandering the aisles of the now absent D&D Liquidators seeing how far I could make $2 stretch. Everyday I had a couple of hours to kill before we closed up the sausage shop for the night and went home.

A staple in my day at that time was to walk across the ever creaking floors of the grocery store in the big old building on the other side of the street from the shop. I would buy candy bars and put quarters in those plastic bubble machines by the exits to get sticky hands and bouncy balls. By the time I was in High School the grocery store had closed and became an Antique Store, which I loved even more! I purchased all sorts of oddities, including vintage skeleton keys I liked to wear as necklaces. At that time I would often gaze longingly at the blocked off staircase at the back of the building wondering what the upstairs looked like and hoping that someday I would be able to find out!

The building has been a handful of things since Bonduel ceased to be my primary residence. I’ve tried to patronize every business that has settled there if I happened to be visiting in town during a weekday. It was a beautiful furniture store for a while and I purchased three pieces, that are still my favorites in my house, during their relocation sale. The building sat empty again until it once again became a consignment style antique store in 2019- the now 1919 Antiques.

When I found out last Christmas (2022) that they had opened the upstairs to more vendor spaces I was out the front door of the sausage shop and heading up those steps in no time. I even purchased some great holiday gifts while I was there. My dream of seeing what was waiting on the second floor had finally come true and I wasn’t disappointed.

The amount of original charm that was still there exceeded my expectations. I was already impressed by the woodwork and preservation of the whole mezzanine level, now a used book store. When this was a grocery store you could look up into this area from down on the floor and it was framed with the shelving and file cabinets of an accountant or manager’s office.

The layout intrigued me even then and I have found that I am often drawn to levels and balconies and glass windows in between interior spaces.

Which is why I was particularly insistent on seeing just where that second set of steps on the mezzanine level led to. And it led to the discovery of this-

Around the entire mezzanine, as if to look down from the upper level, there was this preserved glass enclosure with opening glass doors and round support pillars. The glass was authentic and wavy and the hardware matched that of the built-in cabinet found in our 1906 farmhouse when we bought it.

From a construction perspective the weight bearing down on every floor in a building this size must be considerable. I can’t imagine the engineering that went into opening up the floor like this to make the unique enclosure of glass doors that allows light to filter down to the mezzanine level. But this wasn’t the only awesome old thing up there-

In the back south corner of the building was the original elevator and dumbwaiter system from when the store would bring in large shipments from their back loading dock area. The new building owners saw the value in preserving this and enclosed it in a Plexiglas surround so you can see all the original details.

Of course I love the original color of the wood, complete with the dark stains of time and use. I also adore the stamped letting that can be seen spelling out Bonduel WI.

As I was shopping and exploring I met an end a quarter of the way into the upstairs. A pegboard divider wall closes off the front of the building where the tall windows look down onto the street. This is also the area the other giant staircase on the main floor leads. It is amazing how spacious this building truly is! As 1919 expands they will have plenty of opportunity to create more vendor booths.

For now I am more than content with my visits to the upstairs of this building, even though I am still a little curious about the other half of the second floor. After more than 20 years of pondering what it looked like up there, of staring out the windows of the sausage shop on long Friday nights imagining what history was hiding behind once boarded off windows – I finally got my wish!

Be sure to check out their diverse booths of antiques and collectibles, mixed with some crafts and even furniture!

1919 Antiques

129 N Cecil Street

Bonduel, WI

On an Antique Store Shop Hop? Be sure to make these stops part of your adventure!

Water Street Vintage in New London!

Olde Country Store Antiques in between New London and Waupaca!

And mark you calendars for the annual Antique Acres Event this spring!