Doris Weinbaum, long-time Oak Park resident and owner of Bead in Hand at 145 Harrison St. for the past 14 years, is about to escape the frigid Chicago winter. She’s leaving in January for the hot sands of San Clemente in Orange County, Calif., where she’ll move into a house with a view of the ocean.
But Weinbaum plans to remain a presence at Bead in Hand. She will still own the store and will return to Oak Park every few months with new shipments of beads. Two current employees will become the new managers.
“Bead in Hand will not change,” Weinbaum reassures her customers, adding that she’ll be communicating with the employees often.
She’s wistful about leaving, however. “I’m going to miss the contact with people,” she said. The Harrison Street veteran has been teaching and promoting beading since her store opened in 1993.
“What’s been fun lately is kids coming in who say, ‘I remember when I had my birthday party here when I was little. And then I remember how long I’ve been in business.”
Weinbaum has been in business longer than almost anyone else in what is now called “the arts district.” When Bead in Hand opened, there was only one art gallery on the east end of Harrison Street in Oak Park. Perhaps as far back as the 1970s people had dreamt of an arts district in the area, but most of the downstairs units in the buildings that line the street were used as apartments.
Though the business district wasn’t very arty-featuring an adult daycare and a bookstore that focused on trains-Weinbaum and local building manager Mark Finger thought Harrison had potential. Finger, landlord of the 145-147 Harrison building and an artist himself, expressed his support for the idea of an arts district to Weinbaum, then a Longfellow Elementary parent and south Oak Park resident who had long done accounting for non-profit organizations.
Weinbaum, meanwhile, decided it would be fun to open a crafts store and liked what she heard from Finger, so she decided to rent from him.
“Right away people came, thrilled there was a business on Harrison Street,” she recalls.
After the store opened, more of the downstairs units on Harrison became commercial, Finger remembers. He began converting the rest of his units, and others followed suit.
Two years after she opened, Weinbaum organized the first annual Art on Harrison Walk with the Oak Park Area Arts Council. The council helped Harrison Street businesses use vacant spaces along the street to highlight artists’ work. After that, said Weinbaum, there was a lot of interest in the area and people began inquiring about vacant spaces. A little while later, the Harrison Street Arts District was born.
“Bead in Hand started Harrison Street,” Laura Maychruk, who opened the Buzz Cafe on Harrison in August of 1998, said with a laugh.
Weinbaum is more modest. “I like to think that my coming gave [the arts district idea] a boost,” she said. “The growth has a been a lot greater since I’ve been here.” She has helped the area thrive as a member of the Harrison Street Business Alliance’s board, and most recently as its treasurer.
These days, the east end of Harrison, which was renamed the Oak Park Arts District a year ago, is doing relatively well. “We’re at a point where the spaces are filling up,” said Weinbaum. Parking is even becoming a problem, she said, and the village has batted around the idea of increasing the amount of angled parking.
The village has also committed $2.5 million to the area, some of which will be used for gateway structures and new street signs. The Harrison Street businesses and the village are still discussing how to use the rest of the catalyst money.
Weinbaum is also excited about the possibility of a performing arts center on Harrison. “We have a number of large vacant properties that would be great for that,” she said, mentioning the two vacant buildings on either side of the Brown Elephant resale shop at 217 Harrison. But, she added, funding remains a problem. “I wish that the village’s creative people could figure out a way that they could assist this project,” she said, hinting none too subtly.
Despite the influx of funds and customers on Harrison Street, Weinbaum is looking forward to having more free time. She won’t be leaving beading altogether though. “I do have a dream of spending more time developing my own jewelry designs and perhaps teaching at bead shows around the country,” she said. And, she added with a laugh, “I’d love to make things for Hollywood types who have money.”
Weinbaum may share her new creations with her Bead in Hand customers when she returns to visit Oak Park.
“If I can develop new designs,” she said, “I’ll come in and teach them.”