Lakeview Floral opens in Colfax

By LeAnn R. Ralph

COLFAX —  Lakeview Floral has opened in Colfax in the former location of Farmhouse Floral.

Following the closing of The Farmhouse November 1, the building on Main Street that also houses the Colfax Arts and Antiques Mall, Lynn’s Brewed Awakenings and Blue Butterfly Antiques became half empty.

As soon as he found out that The Farmhouse was planning to close, Mark Johnson, part-owner of the building, owner of the antique mall and the building manager, began looking for other businesses to fill the void.

“Because the Country Shoppe, The Farmhouse, left pretty abruptly, and I have purchased antiques before from Mark (Johnson) and he knew I had Lakeview Floral, he called me to ask if we could service the community by having fresh flowers here,” said Lacy Creaser, owner of Lakeview Floral and Gifts in Menomonie.

Creaser brought fresh flower arrangements and plants to Colfax on Friday, November 15, to stock the cooler that remains in the building from The Farmhouse.

Although Creaser is only planning to have flower arrangements and plants in Colfax  without an employee to work there, people can still call Lakeview Floral for custom arrangements.

“This way, people will still be able to get fresh flowers in Colfax. They can stop in and pick up flowers and plants right here,” Creaser said.

“For now, we will have a sign on the cooler saying we can do delivery and custom orders just by calling our Menomonie location. We can set it up to bring the orders to Colfax for delivery or to have pick-up orders ready that can be picked up here,” she said.

“Our eventual goal will be to have someone staffed over here to make custom arrangements and to consult with families for funeral arrangements, and high school kids for their prom corsages, and those kinds of things. We want to see what the community needs so we can adjust and make changes based on what they tell us,” Creaser said.

“I definitely welcome suggestions and ideas from business owners and customers and people in the area so we can tailor it to be what Colfax needs,” she said.

The Farmhouse Floral, Gifts and Cafe gave notice the business was closing on October 22, and the last day of business was November 1.

“When one business closes down or moves out, the businesses around it are affected. The coffee shop and the antique store became very quiet without the floral and gifts and the restaurant. We need floral and gifts and antiques and a restaurant and a coffee shop. I am hoping to get the restaurant re-opened. I’m happy to have the floral here, and the coffee shop is talking about adding some gift items,” Johnson said.

Johnson is planning to move antiques into the rest of the building formerly occupied by The Farmhouse, and Pat Knutson, owner of the Blue Butterfly Antiques, will be opening a Christmas room that will be set up year round.

The men’s and boys’ department in the basement of Solberg’s Ready to Wear will be available for consignment space as well for whatever businesses that may wish to locate there, Johnson said.

The north two rooms that are currently an antique store will remain unless someone wants to rent that part of the building for a stand-alone business, he said.

“We will be able to do some modifications to set that up so they would have their own separate entrance,” he said.

“Part of what I want to do is have (evidence) of previous businesses in the current business,” Johnson said.

For example, one of the signs on display is for Solberg’s Ready to Wear that was painted by Erling Dahl.

Another example are the theater mask stencils along the top of the wall left over from Colfax Video.

Johnson also plans to display some of the signs from The Country Shoppe.

There are also some photographs of when The Country Shoppe first opened that Johnson plans to display.

Knutson says she hopes to have her Christmas shop set up and open within a week.

“This year I’m going to use what I have and what I’ve accumulated. Next year I will market and buy specifically for the Christmas shop,” she said.

“We’ve got an empty hole, and we’ll find something to fill it,” Knutson said, noting that she has many antiques that she does not yet have on display.

For more information about flowers, contact Lakeview Floral at 715-235-7700.