Historic building in Waupaca gets makeover
By James Card
The tallest building in downtown Waupaca is undergoing a slow but sure transformation.
Blue Skies – named after the Willie Nelson song – is a new retail space that opened last week. The owner, Jamie McCallum-Krisel, has other plans in the making.
Most people might know this place from a street-level view as The Blue Angel Salon.
McCallum-Krisel still runs the salon but it is now located in a separate room that adjoins the new retail floor.
There was no grand opening but as former customers of the Blue Angel Salon stopped in, they were wowed by the radical transformation.
McCallum-Krisel describes Blue Skies as a collection of “curiosities.” It has the feel of a museum in a historic building, an opulent French salon and a modern-rustic boutique.
There are reindeer pelt blankets, zebra hide rugs, pottery and sculptures, artwork, candles, throw pillows, leather hand bags and painted buffalo skulls.
Some of the goods are imported, some are by local artisans and some are vintage items that McCallum-Krisel sourced herself.
Makeover
McCallum-Krisel and her husband, Mike Krisel, bought the building nine years ago.
“I felt like I won the architectural lottery,” she said upon taking ownership.
While growing up in Waupaca, McCallum-Krisel always had her eye on the building.
“I wanted this building so bad. Ever since I was 11 years old,” she said.
Built in 1886, it was called the Grand National Bank. On the second floor were an attorney’s office and a doctor’s office.
It is said that the doctor would tie up his horse in the back of the building.
Currently, there are four apartments on the second floor.
Getting the first floor retail and salon space to what it looks like today was an arduous renovation.
They took down multiple drop ceilings, removed hidden crown molding, and discovered pillars that they did not know existed as they were covered by subdivided walls. They also dealt with water damage from frozen pipes. To get at the original brick walls they removed paneling.
The hardwood floor was covered with carpet that led to endless hours of scraping.
“It was more glue than carpet. There was more carpet glue than you can ever imagine,” said McCallum-Krisel.
Most eye-catching on the first floor is the door of the bank vault. Made by the Diebold Safe AND Lock Company of Canton, Ohio, the inside of the door is glass and the inner workings of the heavy metal locking mechanisms can be seen.
The vault is currently used as a storage room and inside is another smaller vault and an old-time Rube Goldberg alarm system.
There is also an oxygen intake blower in case a person got trapped inside the vault. It still works.
Lounge and Ballroom
On Union Street, there is a side door that leads into another section of the building. This will be the home of the Grand National Lounge.
She recently obtained approval for the cocktail lounge from city council and remodeling is underway.
McCallum-Krisel points to a spot in the room and said that’s where she hopes the elevator will be.
“I’ve had a building inspector and architects look at it and so far no one has said we can’t do it,” she said. “The Grand National Lounge is a prelude to the ballroom.”
On the third floor is a huge ballroom with a stage where Waupaca residents of a bygone age partied with class. McCallum-Krisel hopes to renovate this space to host parties and events.
The elevator idea is so that patrons would not have to enter the ballroom from a separate entryway on Main Street and have to hike up two flights of stairs. Instead they would go directly from the lounge to the ballroom via elevator.
Some of the doors on the side rooms have ornate doorknobs marked with symbols of the Knights of Pythias, a Masonic-like fraternal organization that once used the third floor as their Grand Lodge.
In 1980, presidential candidate Ronald Reagan gave a nationally broadcast speech from the bandstand by city hall which is just across the street. Secret Service agents with sniper rifles positioned themselves at the ballroom windows.
Perfect for Halloween
Once the lounge gets underway, another plan is to host a Halloween party in the basement.
The basement stairs lead down to a series of rooms with walls of stone and brickwork. There is another vault room that is encased by cement.
There is a crusty old coal-fired furnace and the nearby coal room still has chunks of coal still scattered across the floor. The original wood-framed wheelbarrow used to haul the coal is parked nearby.
“Things move around down here,” she said. She pointed to roll of wire: “This wasn’t here before.”
She said tools and building materials are moved around with no explanation. It happens so much that McCallum-Krisel is nonchalant about the apparent poltergeist activity. As far as she knows from her research, nobody ever died in the building.
One time her husband and a buddy were doing some work in the basement. His friend took a photo with his phone and on the display screen, a weird vapor oozed up and around a door. The vapor could not be seen by the naked eye. It was only revealed on the photo.
They quickly beat it back upstairs.