During the spring it became clear to us that the business was outgrowing the School House. We also wanted to use the School House as an escape for us during the pandemic. We started searching for a new location in the charming downtown that would give us the space we needed. My number one choice was a big brick building had been home to my Grandpa (“Pops”) Home Decorating store in the (maybe late 60’s?) 1970-80’s. He sold wallpaper, carpet, tile, paint, etc., back when the Lexington downtown was a bustling place to shop. Since then, it was home of The Victorian Peddler, a tea room and antique shop when I was young, but had been vacant for the last 10 years.
I love this building. It has soaring high tin ceilings, exposed brick walls, and original wide pine floors. It has huge storefront windows and a lovely, heavy and thick original wooden door that creeks when you open it. It just has that feel. And it is huge – 4,000+ square feet. The School House had about 800 of useable square feet, so you can imagine the difference! Now we can spread out, see all of the product more easily, and actually order enough to keep our customers happy.
Initially we did some painting, ceiling repair, updating bathrooms and lots of cleaning to get it ready for our use. We still have an entire kitchen to re-build, a loading dock to consider and some restoration work to do, but we plan to chip away at it over the next couple of years. We’ve been operating out of the big main room all summer for the online order fulfillment, but my big goal for this fall was to get the front retail area open for business.
JSH Home Essentials
900 Main Street
Lexington, Mo.
Hours : Monday – Saturday, 10am-2pm
Lexington’s (Lexington, Missouri) downtown is so very charming, filled with history and beautiful Antebellum architecture. It is the perfect backdrop for our business. While my main business will continue to be growing the online store, I really wanted to contribute to the Main Street and provide a destination shopping spot for locals. Since all of the product lives there at the building before it is shipped out for online orders, it was easy for us to create a showroom and retail space in the front. I spent the summer collecting some antiques for fixtures, concentrating on more rustic pieces for this location than I did the Kansas City store. I will continue to fill it out and add more one-of-a-kind pieces and antiques.
I included an ideal Day Trip Itinerary below if you plan to head out on one of these beautiful fall weekends!
We created this front retail area by facing our big shelving units with sheets of headboard and trim. It created an instant wall partition – my newest favorite trick. Would be great to do in a basement to create storage behind a wall. I will do a more detailed post about the building itself, but for now, you can see the pretty pictures I took last weekend when we opened for the first time.
We love heading out to the country on weekends and am so glad to be available for everyone to add to their list of places to explore. Here is an ideal autumn day trip schedule for anyone heading out this way :
Autumn Day Trip to Lexington, Missouri :
Pumpkin Patch & Donuts : Fahrmeier Farms
Downtown Exploring : JSH on Main Street, River Reader Bookstore & Historic Courthouse
Maid-Rite in Lexington (grab to-go and take it to the Civil War Battlefield for a picnic)
Apple Orchards & Farmstands : Meierer Fruit Stand & Rasa Orchards
Pumpkin Patch & Donuts:
Fahrmeier Farms
9133 County Farm Road, Lexington MO 64067
My cousin owns a produce farm and pumpkin patch right outside Lexington. They’ve got beautiful pumpkins and mums as well as so many kid friendly activities. They have cider and pumpkin donuts & lunch available, too!
Maid-Rite
1401 Main Street Lexington, MO
This is our favorite small-town indulgence. Order sandwiches, onion rings and milkshakes. Eat it on your tailgate or take the picnic to the Lexington Battlefield. Will be a great spot to stretch your legs and explore the historic site.
Anderson House & Civil War Battlefield
1101 Delaware Street, Lexington, Mo.
Civil War Battlefield and historic home that served as a hospital for wounded soldiers.
Apple Orchards & Farm Stands:
Rasa Orchards
19510 Garr Road, Lexington, MO 64022
This is a classic Apple Orchard with so many varieties of THE BEST apples. My favorite for eating are Cameo. Pick up cider here, too.
Meierer Produce Stand
19046 Dwarf Lake Road, Lexington, MO
So many homegrown vegetables, fruits and eggs from chickens you’ll see wandering around the farm and some other fun animals like peacocks! It really isn’t a petting farm, just a real working farm that has amazing animals roaming free.