A FIRST PERSON ACCOUNT OF RUNNING A SMALL BUSINESS.GIVEN the history of 3225 Helms Ave. in Culver City Culver City, city (1990 pop. 38,793), Los Angeles co., S Calif., a residential suburb of Los Angeles; inc. 1917. It is a center of the U.S. motion-picture industry, whose roots in the city date to c.1915. Its chief manufactures are rubber products and computers. , it seems fitting that the building be home to an antique store. Built in stages between 1931 and 1947, the structure was the original location of Helms Bakery The Helms Bakery in Culver City, California was a notable industrial bakery of Southern California that operated from 1931 to 1969. Among other things it was the official baker of the 1932 Summer Olympics. This was mentioned in the logo on the bread wrappers. . From then until the '60s, its door-to-door bread delivery business flourished, spanning from Fresno to San Diego San Diego (săn dēā`gō), city (1990 pop. 1,110,549), seat of San Diego co., S Calif., on San Diego Bay; inc. 1850. San Diego includes the unincorporated communities of La Jolla and Spring Valley. Coronado is across the bay. at its peak, then closing its doors in 1969. When the building was purchased by its present owners in 1972, they decided to preserve its historic character. Occupying the building for the past 27 years has been The Antique Guild, a successful business and one that complements the historic structure. Staff reporter Conor Dougherty talked with Verley Collins, the store's manager, about the history of the business and their newly opened museum. "Don Guild leased the building and opened up the first antique guild. Eventually he opened up nine others across the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. . Those have all been closed and liquidated. This store, the original Antique Guild, is the only one left and we've been here 27 years. "Lee Bixler, the current owner, got the rights for the name and the lease in 1995. He knew it was a good thing. We already had a strong following; we're known worldwide, and we had a mailing list An automated e-mail system on the Internet, which is maintained by subject matter. There are thousands of such lists that reach millions of individuals and businesses. New users generally subscribe by sending an e-mail with the word "subscribe" in it and subsequently receive all new of around 300,000 -- 24,000 of which were interior designers. "In 1995, we opened up our showcase store. The success of the showcase store prompted us to open the furniture division seven months later. "We've been in the process for some time and finally opened the Helms Bakery Museum four months ago. Peterson Automotive has put a 1948 Helms delivery truck on permanent display in our museum and we've been collecting Helms memorabilia for 20 years. And now we're doing things in conjunction with museums. "For instance, we're currently doing a show with the L.A. Textile Museum and the Arts and Crafts arts and crafts, term for that general field of applied design in which hand fabrication is dominant. The term was coined in England in the late 19th cent. as a label for the then-current movement directed toward the revivifying of the decorative arts. Museum about textiles. The show is here until Jan. 15. Last Tuesday Last Tuesday is a Christian melodic punk rock band hailing from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. They played their final show on March 10th, 2007. Last Tuesday was formed in 1999 in Harrisburg, P.A. alone, 85 people showed up. "Lee buys all the furniture and antiques for the furniture division. We have some consignment, and we have Antique Guild jewelers, who handle estate jewelry. "Here you can see anything from a $10 collectible item, such as photographs or baseball cards, $5,000 or $6,000 armoires, we even have a bar, on up to $25,000 jewelry. Watches alone run from $25 to $18,000 or $19,000." |
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