WAUPUN — Demolition work began this week at Blue Heron Antiques for a project to restore the old downtown building.
Earlier this year, owner Melanie Williams won a WEDC grant to redesign and restore the facade and shopfront of 311 E Main St in downtown Waupun. In May, the east half of the building was cleared out to prepare for the renovation work this summer, which began Monday morning.
“I’ve been waiting for a long time,” Williams said. “I’m very excited to get started, but it’s a lot of work—you can only plan for the pretty stuff, but you have to do all this stuff first.”
The project includes opening up the office walls in the 311 E Main half and removing the drop ceiling to expose the original construction of the building.
As of the start of demo work this morning, some antique tin ceiling tiles were exposed along with ceiling wallpaper possibly original to the building’s construction hidden for decades—if not more than a century.
“We are opening up and really exposing the bones of how this building was built and trying to determine how I can keep even little tidbits of what is here,” Williams said. “I want to figure out how I can retain a few glimpses of that—I want people to know how the building may have been. So it’s just really kind of an exploratory and a slow demo.”
While no timeline was provided for the project, Williams previously expressed that she would like it to be completed in time for the Christmas season, which is the most popular season for her store.
Blue Heron will remain open during regular hours as renovations allow, accessible from the main door at 309 E Main St.
