On the way out to Francis Park on the Fourth of July, I drove past the familiar structure on the corner of Railroad Avenue and Florence Street. A sign posted out front let me know that the business was open on the holiday.
It had been years since I had been inside Baysingar’s Antiques and it hit me how little I knew about the establishment or its history in Kewanee. It’s just always been there for as long as I can remember and so, being curious, I decided at the next available opportunity, I would pop in for a visit.
Was it an excuse to shop on the job? Sure, but still, I really was interested in learning about the family behind one of Kewanee’s most enduring shops.
Pat Baysingar was busy in the workshop that’s next to her store when I located her. Would she be willing to give me some of her time to answer my questions? She graciously agreed and the tour began.
On July 28, 1969, Pat and her husband, Andy, opened the door of “House of Bargains” at that very location. When they first began, they sold a little bit of everything. In 1994, the name was changed to Baysingar’s Antiques.
Opening the store was Andy’s idea, she was quick to say, but Pat comes from a long line of shopkeepers.
Her Dad, Jim Callahan opened a store when she was in the second grade.
“Everyone knew my dad,” she said.
His store “Jungle Jim’s Trading Post” was located in Peoria during the 1950s and 1960s. He later operated the business in Stark County from the 1960s to the 80s. Her brother also owns an antique shop.
She and Andy operated their Kewanee business for 50 years together. Her husband’s photo now hangs on a wall in the store, attached to a newspaper article written by Dave Clarke.
There was no one better at taking a piece of furniture, taking it apart and putting it back together and making it look like new than her husband Andy, she said. He passed away in 2019, but Pat isn’t quite ready to leave it all behind.
She now works in her shop taking pieces she’s either bought through private sales, auctions or estate sales and creating new pieces. Some of the pieces she buys are “rough,” antiques or vintage pieces, but she only deals with solid wood.
“I am a stickler about that,” she said.
Her skills come in taking those rough vintage and antique pieces and repurposing them, giving them a second life.
From an old desk, Pat can create two bedside tables, the perfect height for the thicker mattresses today, she said. An old headboard becomes a bench, one of the most favorite items in her store right now.
In her shop are pieces from all eras, and many of the items are over 100 years old. Most of the oak pieces were built in the 1910s. She has Victorian furniture from the 1880s and the 1920 depression style, many of which are made using Walnut veneer.
A current hot seller, mid-century modern furniture, sells as quickly as she gets them in, she said. One of her favorite pieces, a mahogany etagere with beveled glass mirrors, was meant to go in a hallway.
Most pieces she purchases are in need of some work. She can usually gain inspiration on what the piece will become just by looking at it. To paint it or leave it natural isn’t always an easy choice, but she is not adverse to painting wood.
While many people think antique pieces are sacrosanct and should never come in contact with a paint brush, Pat said painted items simply sell faster. There are several sideboards that she has refinished and left in their natural state. They are beautiful and yet, they haven’t sold, she said. Her buffets, however, that she paints the table legs and stains the tops sell quickly.
“It’s not what you like,” she said. “You have to figure out what your customers want.”
And that’s what Pat has been good at doing. Through time, as tastes and styles change, she’s been able to change with them. That’s been made easier by knowing her customers who shop at her store.
“My customers are more my friends. They’re like family,” said Pat.
