BUCYRUS — On June 20, 1992, two words and a kiss sealed a lifetime of adventure for Laura and Kent Stuckey. Still, Laura never could have anticipated what was in store after saying, “I do.”
The Bucyrus couple, who already manage a cattle farm, farmer’s market and wedding venue, now intend to open another business at The Pickwick Place and move into a newly renovated house — before their 27th anniversary.
“I never would have imagined all this, but I knew when I married him, it’d be an adventure,” Laura said.
She and Kent plan to move into their new house later this spring and to open a unique store, called “The Stalls,” at 1875 N, Sandusky Ave. in Bucyrus by mid-June. The 14,000 square-foot barn will feature a mix of new and old items in three categories: Artisan ware, antique finds and unique gifts.
“When we had the vision for this, we didn’t want just an antique mall. I mean, we like antiques but we wanted something with a little more diversity,” Kent said. “There should be a little bit of something for everybody.”
The first floor will allow up to four rows of vendors, and the second floor will have two rows. Each will have a series of “stalls,” which vendors will be responsible for keeping stocked.
When talking about the project, Kent says this is a “cake walk.” By comparison, that could be true.
He and Laura opened two of their three barns — the wedding venue, called “The Loft,” and farmer’s market — at The Pickwick Place on the same day in 2016. This was after renovating the two barns, having utilities installed and hauling away more than 50 semi-loads of trash from the property.
“So in 2015, our youngest son decided he wanted to grow fruits and vegetables for a living … We needed a really good location and at this property, 40 acres was for sale,” Laura said.
They didn’t initially know if the buildings would be included in the sale, but when it was, the couple set out to clean the property as quickly as possible, tearing down three houses and six other buildings.
“People were like, ‘Oh, they’re going to tear down everything.’ They were really alarmed that we were going to raze the site,” Kent said. “And so we pretty quickly had to lay out a plan on what we were doing.”
Still, they struggled to determine the best use for The Pickwick Place’s third barn. That took some extra time to determine its purpose.
“I know it’s over a year ago, we met with the architect to really get the ball rolling, but we were thinking about it probably two years ago,” Kent said.
They still have work to do inside before opening in June, but for now, they are accepting vendor applications. Interested people can contact The Stalls at sharon@thepickwickplace.com or (419) 689-5030.
“We’re hoping to get a lot of just very talented creators. And we will take a look at their applications to see if it’s a good fit for us as well as a good fit for them,” Laura said.
She explained that they hope to avoid too much duplication in vendors.
The barn being renovated for The Stalls was orignally built in 1920 for show cows. Later it was used to house race horses. The building’s name was chosen by Laura.
“I think because this building (the wedding venue) is called The Loft because of its hay loft, I kind of wanted to play off the history as well. And so it being vendor space, it just made sense for it to be called the stalls,” she said.
For now, the Stuckey’s intend for The Stalls to be open seven days a week, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.
