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End of an Era at Jacksonport Craft Cottage

 

It started under a tree in Baileys Harbor on the Fourth of July in 1984. Because Sue and Joe Jarosh were too busy selling Sue’s calligraphy items at a craft fair to go to Bill Schaefer’s real estate office, he brought them the document making them the owners of the old Bagnall homestead in Jacksonport. Built in the 1860s and thought to be the oldest house in the village, it became the seasonal home of the couple and their sons, J.R. and Jon, as well as the Jacksonport Craft Cottage.

Both Sue and Joe are Wisconsin natives, she from De Pere and he from Manitowoc. Sue spent time in Jacksonport throughout her childhood, and in the 1960s helped her uncle, Paul Steckart, build the house on Lake Shore Drive that became the focal point of her family’s vacation activities. When it was sold in 1979, they started thinking about another location in the area.

Both Sue and Joe were teachers, first in Appleton, where they met and married, and later in Dubuque, Iowa. In the years before they bought the house in Jacksonport, they traveled many miles every year to outdoor craft shows. When the Craft Cottage opened on Aug. 1, 1984 – exactly four weeks after they purchased the property – Sue’s plaques and Christmas ornaments were their only merchandise, and it was displayed in the small entry that had once been the Bagnalls’ screened porch. The other rooms of the original log cabin built by John Tollerton Bagnall were the family’s living quarters.

One of the couple’s first moves was to take a class in operating a small business offered by the Door County Economic Development Corporation. “It really changed our perspective on demographics,” they say. “We know that visitors like to buy something by a local artist, so they can take home a Door County remembrance.” Later, at the urging of their son Jon, who is director of communications and public relations at the Door County Visitor Bureau, they trained to become Community Tourism Ambassadors.

For 19 years, they did the “summer shuttle.” Sue came from Dubuque early to open the shop, and Joe and the boys joined her when school was out. The trip was reversed at the end of the summer, with Sue staying in Jacksonport through the fall after the others returned to Dubuque. They estimate they made the 292-mile round trip from Iowa to Wisconsin 300 times, counting visits to grandparents in the ’70s and early ’80s and always for Christmas and Jacksonport’s famed Polar Bear Plunge.

During the past 31 years, both the shop and the family’s living quarters have expanded. In 1998, the boys helped their parents remove four layers of siding from the original logs inside, sand and recaulk them. The outside of the house was covered with simulated logs to match. By that time, merchandise from the 120-125 local and regional artists they represent had taken over the entire downstairs of the house. The bedroom where Sue’s parents had slept when they came to help during the busy season became the display area for the Amish quilts for which the shop is famous.

The shop has also continued to feature items with Sue’s calligraphy. She’s sold about 100,000 of them and recently, in preparation for selling the Craft Cottage, gave 6,000 pieces to the Southern Door School District for an October craft show to benefit student activities.

In 2003, when Joe retired after 31 years as head of the elementary physical education department for the Dubuque School District, he was named the district’s Teacher of the Year, and was runner-up for the state title. Over the previous winter, they had an addition built on the south side of the cottage. It includes a large living area, sun room and Joe’s “Packer potty,” every inch adorned with green and gold items given to him through the years by students who knew of his devotion to the team. The old gazebo that used to be 20 feet south of the house is now just six feet from the wall of the family room.

The Jaroshes’ special relationship with the Amish has been a unique part of their business. Sue has sold Amish quilts for 30 years – currently about 90 each season – and has organized an annual quilt show since 1998. When they outgrew the shop, the shows were moved to Mr. G’s. She dealt with 20 to 25 Amish families, collecting quilts, wall hangings, table runners, potholders, baskets and rugs each spring on an 11-day trip to the four largest Amish communities in the country: Holmes County, Ohio; Lancaster County, Penn.; LaGrange County, Ind., and – a surprise to many – western Wisconsin, as well as other locations in Iowa and Minnesota.

Every year since 2008, they have spent three days in Pennsylvania with the family of Anna and Reuben Lapp, sharing their way of life and participating in activities in the Amish community. The Lapps were asked if their farm could be used as the location for filming the 1985 movie, Witness. They refused, saying “it would show too much pride,” but they referred the film crew to a nearby farm owned by an “English” man, the Amish name for anyone not of their faith.

Joe and Sue instilled in their sons the importance of giving something back to the place where they live. Both boys married local girls – J.R. to Nell Emerson and Jon to Natalie Sitte – and each couple has two young children. For an example of “giving back,” they need only look at their parents. “If you’re going to be in a place,” Joe says, “you need to make a difference.”

For 30 years, the Craft Cottage has served as Jacksonport’s Visitor Information Center. As the Jacksonport correspondents for the Door County Advocate, Sue and Joe wrote more than 1,000 columns. The final one appeared on Oct. 31. The Jacksonport Historical Society held its first meeting around their kitchen table. They started the town’s annual cherry fest and the seasonal farmers market. Sue developed the town’s brochure. She says that when the local women’s club was down to herself and one other member, “We said we’d either each have to recruit two other women or quit.” The membership is now 58! For years, both Joe and Sue have volunteered at Northern Sky Theater (formerly American Folklore Theatre), Birch Creek, Peninsula Players and Door Community Auditorium.

In 2014, Joe was named National Certified Tourism Ambassador of the Year, the first time a business owner has earned the award. Both Sue and Joe were honored as Door County CTAs, but the national competition allowed only one name to be entered. There’s no doubt, though, that it’s always been a team effort, at the Craft Cottage and in their community involvement. “It’s been a family journey,” Joe says. “Priceless.”

The sale of the Craft Cottage to Amy and John Burris of Wisconsin Rapids was finalized on Nov. 2. After 31 years, the Jaroshes have come full circle. The saga that began under a tree in Baileys Harbor has brought them back there, to a condo in The Oaks on the bluff above the village. Joe will continue to work at Whitefish Dunes from May 1 to Nov. 1. To help the new owners learn the ropes, Sue will spend one day a week at the shop for a year and two more years as a consultant. She plans to stay involved with the farmers market and hopes to find a place to volunteer in Baileys Harbor, too, perhaps at the Ridges. And, she’s thinking of writing a book about the history of the Bagnall house and all the people who’ve lived there.

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