The Birth of Antique Row

The Birth of Antique Row. Cherokee-Lemp Historic District. Following World War II, changing lifestyles and housing patterns and the development of shopping strips and shopping malls brought decline to old-fashioned business districts like Cherokee Street., Homemaker Antiques, established in 1945, both anticipated and spurred the district's reincarnation as Cherokee Street's Antique Row., This family business began when Ambrose Christopher Daues was forced to change careers because of a heart condition. He gave up his job that required traveling and bought a used furniture store, Homemaker Furniture Shop, then located at 2204 Cherokee., The evolution from used furniture into the antique business began with Daues finding boxes and barrels of china and glassware stored in the shop. Leonora, Ambrose's wife, had worked in the fine china department of Famous-Barr. She recognized the quality of the glassware and began washing it and displaying it in the shop windows. It sold briskly., Ambrose Christopher Daues died about three years after he bought the business. His widow moved the store to 2124 Cherokee in 1952. The corner storefront had been built in 1902 to house David's Furniture Company. Leonora filled the store to overflowing. "If it stood still, she bought it," Patricia Daues Heffner said recalling how her mother kept the store stocked. "My mother didn't drive. The farmers from Illinois brought her things they dug up -- arrowheads, ancient farm equipment,... The store offered Indian pottery that is now in museums, unusual furniture, cabinets full of cut glass." According to Patricia Daues Heffner, her mother, "Bought and sold Depression Glass before it was called Depression Glass.", Patricia Daues Heffner developed expertise in dolls and doll restoration. She also learned china and porcelain painting and restoration of decorative painting on furniture. When Leonora died in 1975, Patricia, her husband Robert Heffner and son James took over the day-to-day operations of the business.