Reply With Quotei've known hank for a thousand years (it seems)......he was in my wedding party....he's moving to a location next door to his son's business.....his son,btw,is an old friend of hip's....hank and cindy are good people....
Horsefeathers is a great store. It's a real trip.
Piece of past relocating to future
Horsefeathers findsnew home in Black Rock
By Mark Sommer NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: 12/10/07 6:51 AM
Horsefeathers Architectural Antiques and Hollywood Hank’s, the West Side emporium known for carrying everything from furniture and hardware to nostalgia and memorabilia, is relocating to Black Rock.
Housed in a five-story late-19th century building at 346 Connecticut St., Horsefeathers has been a museumlike tourist destination as much as the place to go to replace a missing spindle or find an old soda machine, marble fireplace or carousel horse.
But Hank and Cindy Sontag, who acquired the building in January 1997 after the death of founder James C. Curran, have struggled to stay open three days a week after first announcing five years ago it was closing, and then being open by appointment only.
“If I got $100,000 at auction for everything in here, I’d probably be lucky, and there’s probably $800,000 to $1 million of stuff in here — and that’s wholesale,” Hank Sontag said. “That’s pretty much why we’ve stayed here.”
Sontag, who is passionate about his business, frequently breaks into stories about how he remains enamored of items he had come upon in the store, from an electric guitar with the body of a 1957 Chevrolet fender to a rare circus poster.
"This business is addictive. I still love to go out and buy," he said.
The new store at 37 Chandler St., a two-story brick building in an industrial area, is expected to open in the spring when the current store closes. It will be considerably smaller - down to 8,000 usable square feet from 28,000 at the current location - and will emphasize better-quality items along with an enlarged hunting and fishing area.
One of the Sontags' sons recently opened the Kennel Club, a dog grooming and boarding business, in the building.
"I think when people come in here and see we're a little more upscale, they're going to want [what we have]. When they see this fishing and hunting area after we've tweaked it out, it's gonna be killer," said Sontag, an avid hunter.
Successful efforts to liquidate stock were evident on a recent walk through the current location, but a considerable volume of eclectic items remained. They range from crystal chandeliers and a herd of fiberglass buffaloes, to furnishings from a 1928 diner in St. Catharines, Ont.; a turn-of-the-20th-century decorative wood-burning stove; and a root beer dispenser.
A wooden statue of St. Elizabeth, made in Buffalo in 1897, hovers by the store's entrance, near a carved lion's head, bubble gum machine and window from the 1901 Pan-American Exposition.
Seeing the store in a transitional stage is difficult for Sontag, 62, who is conflicted about the decision to shutter his store and reopen in Black Rock near where he grew up.
"It's [painful], it really is. This place has been a part of our life for 10 years. My two little boys grew up in that store," he said.
Besides buying and selling items, Sontag has repaired and restored them in his workshop on the fifth floor, using such skills as woodworking, framing and plastering.
He has been in recent discussion with an investor from California interested in buying the building and turning it into lofts and condominiums. A similar renovation is under way in the building next door.
Sontag, who years earlier also owned the clothing business Goody Two Shoes in Main Place Mall and Hollywood Hank's on Main Street, looks forward to buyers coming down and carting things away, reducing the number to move into the smaller space. The business is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday through Saturday.
"If we can get people down here, they're going to get deals," Sontag said. "If they're going to look at something, they're going to own it."
That goes for certain items that he admittedly has resisted selling because of the attachment he has developed to them.
"If somebody else likes it more than me, I'll sell it," Sontag said.
e-mail: msommer@buffnews.com
i've known hank for a thousand years (it seems)......he was in my wedding party....he's moving to a location next door to his son's business.....his son,btw,is an old friend of hip's....hank and cindy are good people....
Piece of past relocating to future
Horsefeathers findsnew home in Black Rock
By Mark Sommer NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: 12/10/07 6:51 AM
A GREAT ADDITION to the GRANT-AMHERST ST. area. Looking forward to the opening
Horsefeather's is a great place. It's like going into a museum, only you can touch the pieces. From antiques to what looks like just plain junk. (Don't laugh, I bought some of the junk - slabs of old marble - that I used for a rock garden.)
I loved Horsefeathers, but haven't been there during the Sontag's proprietorship. How on earth will they ever begin to move all of that stuff? If they have a sale I'd love to know. Could spend hours looking at things. I hope it never changes with its new location.
Can't think of what I bought there and I may have sold something to Curran.
I have to restrict myself from going to these places; I always find something I can't live without. Anyplace from Horsefeathers, to the Stock Market and Coucou You, and ALL yard sales. Elmwood Avenue used to be the place but it's dwindled down to a few shops.
I started my obsession when very broke and had to go to Salvation Army for furniture, and, yes, a lot of other things we needed. When our family all went its own way, I sold a few things and got almost $2000! But the market isn't the same, but still better than the rest of the country.
Horsefeathers definitely a good stop.
Yeah, same guy as referenced in my ill-fated story, go figure......
Let me articulate this for you:
"I'm not locked in here with them. They're locked in here with me!!"
HipKat's Blog
When I was young and living in an apartment with a bunch of other people, we used to get our furniture, etc. from the Depew Street neighborhood in the city. Nice big ritzy mansions and the stuff those people threw away is better than most of the stuff at ST. Wal-Marts.Originally Posted by speaker
My friend went into this line, incognito and never told her friends. One day she opened up a shop!
and............????
Their thieves! They have been arrested numerous times for stolen property!
uhhhhh....no......and if you're so sure...let's see proof...
what you just posted is horrid!!!
Oh yes. They have found stolen property many many times in Horsefeathers---Now I;m not saying they don't have good stuff but its a known place where stolen property acan be found.
I just know---I can't offer proof because its not FOIL eligible.
Its not horrid--its the truth--just like the other one on Niagara St---samething
And you know this because? Can you send me some type of report that shows this to be true?
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because I know thats why--and no i can;t send you a report because its not FOIL eligible. I know some past detectives that worked in the stolen property unit of BPD. I don;t see a reason why they would lie.
Are you calling me a liar?
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