Published: November 21, 2009 12:06 am      

NORTH TONAWANDA: After years sitting empty, new life for store

A new business on Oliver Street is capitalizing on an historic old building and an equally historic array of antiques and other goods to be sold there.

Mike Ahearn, 30, of North Tonawanda, is today celebrating the grand opening of the Lumber City Antiques Co-op, housed in the former Wagenshuetz Hardware store at the corner of Oliver and Thompson streets.

He and his family are now restoring the building, which has a long history including a third-floor speakeasy and wedding hall, which some in town still recall.

But even as the work continues on the second and third floors, Ahearn has already rented display areas to 28 vendors at street level.

Larry and Susan St. Syr, who live in North Tonawanda, said they stopped and inquired about renting a booth there after Larry was driving by and saw the co-op’s sign. The couple attends auctions throughout the region. While Larry likes wrought iron goods, old tools and other vintage country items, Susan sells candles.

“For several years we’ve been thinking about doing something like this,” Larry St. Syr said.

Elsewhere, pottery, original painting, jewelry, sheet music and furniture are all already drawing customers, Ahearn said.

Vendors pay $80 each month for an eight by eight-foot space. Though they’re sometimes referred to a “booths” the layout is open, allowing each merchants’ offering to bleed into the next collection.

“I like silver, older furniture like Roycroft, Stickley ... there’s a lot of glasswork in here, pottery. It’s pretty eclectic in here,” Ahearn said about his own sales space, which is the same size as everyone else’s but nearer the door.

The Hardware store closed in 1999, he explained, and he purchased it at auction a year later. His passion for antiques began when he inherited a home from his aunt several years ago in his native city of Buffalo.

“I inherited a home 10 years ago and it was full of antiques, and that pretty much got me started,” he said. “Just with the antique dealers who were coming in to buy some of the furniture and the prices they were willing to pay.”

Ahearn, who has lived in North Tonawanda for six years now and is an active member of Sweeney Hose volunteer fire company, pointed out that soon the building will be full with some 150 vendors, aside from the 28 vendors already up and selling on the first floor. There is a waiting list in some cases for upper floor space.

The third floor features the remnants of an old stage and even the rack used for hanging pool cues in one room. With its wide open, doorless passages from one room to another, Ahearn said it was once home to a social club called the Sons of Italy. After a stint as a speakeasy during prohibition, he said many a marriage had been celebrated there, too.

There’s a lot of history in this building. I’ve had a couple of people who said ‘oh, my sister’s wedding was up on the third floor, what does it look like up there?’ ” he said. “I tell them, ‘well, pretty much the same as it did.’ ”

He says business is off to a good start and that passersby who have poked their heads into the building all have positive comments to share.

“It’s a beautiful building. It’s huge. It’s a shame to let it just sit empty,” he said.

The public is encouraged to attend a raffle, food and other comforts at the 230 Oliver Street cooperative from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. today. Customers who have been coming in so far have been offered raffle tickets for the drawing, Ahearn said.

Contact reporter Neale Gulley at 693-1000, ext. 114.