Shopping at Irene's Consignment Shop

Looking around Rensselaer's downtown, I was surprised at how few retail establishments are left. Consider the 200 block of West Washington. On the northwest side there is Jack's Uptown Service, a boarded up building that is occupied, the Uptown Girls Styling Salon, Sunchasers Tanning Salon, Tucker Real Estate, L&J Antiques and Things, an empty building, and the Lafayette Bank and Trust. Only one of those is a retail store, the antique store. If we continue down the street to the 100 block, we have an empty lot, Jasper County Microfilm Department, the Riley Law Office, an empty office, the CI Insurance in a beautifully restored bank building, Irene's Consignment Shop, an empty store that used to be Harvey Copy Center but which has now moved to the consignment shop, the Clauss Bakery and Cafe, Clean-As-A-Whistle, Jasper County Land Surveying, the Executor, the Dreamers Solution Music, the Sister Act Salon, and an empty store. Only Irene's Consignment Shop and the Dreamers Solution Music are really retail shops.
I had not noticed that Harvey's Copy Center was moving. It had originally started in the building at Harrison and Cullen that most recently was Whippersnap Studio. Tom Harvey had moved about four years ago when he bought the old OddFellows Building and also the building next to it, which houses Irene's Consignment Shop. The Oddfellows are no longer active in Rensselaer, and whatever was left here has consolidated with the Monticello branch. The Oddfellows were once a large and active fraternal organization, but have been shrinking for many years.

However, there is some good news here. The reason that Harvey's has moved is because the Clauss Bakery wants to expand, and they will move into the space that was occupied by Harvey's Copy Center.

Here is what these two buildings looked like when they were new. The space that is now the consignment store was then Traub and Selig, a dress store. Next door was Columbia Shoe Store, and next to that was E. D. Rhoads & Son Hardware. (I might be wrong on the initials. My copy of the picture has more detail than this one, but is still a bit unclear.) Note the nice turret on the top of the building. The Oddfellow building was built in 1895 in a Romanesque style, and the building to its left in 1898 in a neoclassical style. I bet no one who is reading this remembers any of those stores.
There have been lots of businesses on the second floors of these buildings: attorneys, dentists, insurance and real estate agents, and at one time the local license branch. For many years the Muday Sewing Center was in the Copy Center space.

Among the stores that have been in the consignment shop space are Montgomery Ward, Read More, and the Lewis and Young Hardware store. I cannot say I remember any of them, but here is a picture of the building when it was the Lewis and Young Hardware store.
Enough of the past. Here is the building today. The Jasper County Interim Report says,

The cornice of this Neoclassical commercial building is adorned with dentils and a balustrade. The facade features quoins and 2-story pilasters.

I will let you figure out what that means. It must be good, right? Notice that the building to the left is not the same as the building to the left in the old picture.
Let us go in and see what is there.
This ATV was a surprise. It had a price of $1000. I expected the store to be just clothes, and it is not. As the picture below shows, it also has books, CDs, and VHS tapes.
In the case by the cash register was an assortment of jewelry.
However, most of the merchandise was clothing, though you might also be able to see some shoes and purses on the wall. The store has no inventory; everything there is on consignment. Anyone who has things that they would like to sell, and does not want to bother with a yard sale or attempt to sell it on eBay, can bring it in. Obviously, the store takes part of the proceeds if it sells. I did not ask about the details of how this works. If you are interested, contact them and I am sure that they will be happy to explain it.
On the day I was there, Irene was not feeling well, but Tom Harvey was a wonderful host and was willing to share a lot of information with me, and brought out some old pictures, some of which I photographed and are shown above. For many years Irene worked at Saint Joseph's College in the copy center, and everyone out there knew her.

Here is a different view from the back of the store, showing some glassware and a few other non-clothing items as well as a lot of clothes.
I did not see any furniture items, except for the chairs below, which I do not think were for sale, but for people to come in and visit. The view from the front window was wonderful--it is of the front of the Court House.
If you are looking for clothes or just about anything, stop in and see what they have. It is a fun place to visit.