By Kathy Henderson
Ever since the Midway Investment Co. established Old Fireside Inn in the early 1900s, later christened Milton Square by Mary Ann Milton in 1957, shops and services have opened and closed for a variety of reasons in the retail and residential complex at Como and Carter avenues that anchors St. Anthony Park’s business district.
Yet, as one’s favorite shop closes its doors there — be it Micawber’s, Muffuletta, Cat aMEWSement — another soon-to-become favorite —Yes! Yes!, the Makery, Marigold, Bob Mitchell’s Fly Shop — opens.
Recently, the Milton Square courtyard welcomed the vintage shop June Room, which has its roots in previous vintage stores that once operated in the complex.
As Practically Magical, which relocated to Minneapolis over the summer, had emerged from Thistle’s closing, June Room blossomed from its owners’ experiences as vendors at Practically Magical.
June Room’s three owners — Hillary Weeks, Michaela Kramer and Heidi Vetter — started out as Practically Magical shoppers and ended up as vendors there. When Practically Magical became a solo operation, they decided to get together and open a pop-up vintage and art shop for just one day in June.
“The June Room name is based on our original plan to only be open on the first of June for the St. Anthony Park Art Fair,” Vetter explained. “The ‘room’ part was a nod to our hosts of the space that day, the Tamarack Room (in the Milton Square courtyard).”
That one day “stretched into the next weekend,” which stretched into “let’s keep doing this through July,” which turned into their current five days a week (10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Wednesdays–Sundays) as a Tamarack Room sublet.
“If you asked me three months ago, six months ago if we’d still be here, we wouldn’t have thought that possible,” Weeks said.
“What makes it different being the owners of June Room, rather than being Practically Magical vendors, is that we’ve been able to expand on, curate and dive deeper into the items that excite us,” Vetter said. “The June Room allows us to express our unique personalities more fully.”
While the three owners have unique personalities, interests, talents and skills, they also have a similar vision for the store, work well together and appreciate what each, individually, brings to June Room.
“We complement each other,” Weeks said. “We teach and learn from each other.”
Along with their passion for vintage and their extensive business experiences, each also brings a scholarly background, with academic degrees in art history (Kramer), interior design (Vetter) and textile, apparel and accessories design (Weeks). Their wide-ranging expertise is reflected in their individual booth contents: Kramer, mid-century modern, cool furniture, matchbooks, quality ash trays; Vetter, classic, traditional, original art; Weeks, tactile, handmade, whimsical (e.g., a display shelf of various items united by a theme of each being green).
The interior of June Room is arranged with individual booth areas for Vetter, Kramer and Weeks and their six other vendors around the perimeter of a large room with a stone fireplace. A shared theme-related space is in the center.
This was the former Tamarack Room banquet area, one of the two historic community gathering social halls (Tamarack Lodge and Old Fireside Inn) that architect Franklin Ellerbe included in the complex design as it was being built in 1909, with the retail shop area along Carter Avenue added in 1912.
Some of the June Room vendors are familiar ones from Practically Magical and most, like its trio of owners, live in the surrounding area. For example, Kathy Hoaglund is there with her delightful items from childhoods past, plus merchandise embellished with her favorite strawberry motif, while Angel Guevara, originally from Paris, Texas, offers estate and new jewelry, watches and purses.
In addition, with over 20 years of experience and having earned numerous watch and jewelry industry certifications, Guevara is also ready to repair the watches and jewelry of others.
Decked out on a Sunday game day afternoon in Viking purple women’s wear and standing in the midst of seasonal displays of fall sports fashions and collectables and Halloween décor, Mary Norris, owner of Yes! Yes! Vintage Market + Boutique, which is a hybrid shop of vintage, new items and assorted retro-brand candy at 2242 Carter Ave., observed how “There is a synergy among all the Milton Square and Como Avenue business owners.”
Emphasizing how the St. Anthony Park business district has become a fun destination shopping area, Norris noted that if a neighborhood business doesn’t have what a customer is looking for, they will direct that customer to a nearby store that might have it in stock.
And that special St. Anthony Park neighborhood feeling among the business owners, shoppers and neighbors is something that Practically Magical proprietor Abby MacFarlane said she is going to miss, although she points out with a laugh that her new location at 2309 50 St. W. is close to a Nico’s Taco Bar, just as her shop on Carter Avenue once was.
“I think the world of those women (Weeks, Kramer and Vetter)” MacFarlane said, “and how we, as women business owners, all support each other.”
Kathy Henderson lives in St. Paul and is a Bugle freelance writer.
