Kuckuk and Pulcifer Building

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A Brief History

Kuckuk and Pulcifer Building
105-107 South Main Street
Shawano, Wisconsin

 In 1885 Antone Kuckuk took charge of the G.D. Tolman Jewelry business which came into his hands as principal creditor. The Kuckuk Jewelry and Music Store expanded into the new Kuckuk and Pulcifer Building in 1890, the south side of the building being occupied by the Jewelry and Music Store and the north side of the building by the grocery business of Kuckuk and Pulcifer in which Mr. Kuckuk had a half interest. In 1895 Mr. Kuckuk received a degree from the Chicago Ophthalmic College and the store opened its Department of Optometry. Through the years departments of sewing machines and photographic equipment were added.

After the Pulcifier grocery business closed, there were five tenants in the Kuckuk & Pulcifer building. On the first floor was the Kuckuk Jewelry and Schauder Shoe stores, with the second-floor businesses being the Rolland Kuckuk Law Offices, Les & Pete’s Barber Shop, and Shawano Shopper’s Guide.

Schauder’s Shoes moved into the K&P building in 1939 after Arnold Schauder moved his business from Clintonville. The store was later operated by Arnold and his three sons Leroy (Roy), Glenn (Chick), and Frank. After closing the Jewelry Store in the late 1950’s the wall between the two sides on the first floor was opened up and used to expand the shoe store.

Pete Frei and Les Otto were partners in Les and Pete’s Barber Shop for over 30 years until 1975 when they retired. They located on the second floor of the K&P building after relocating after the Murdock House hotel burned in 1948.
Attorney Rolland Kuckuk operated a law office in the K&P building after leaving the military, until his death in 1989. He served as a Staff Judge Advocate in the Army Air Corps during WWII he was stationed in North Africa (Accra 1947 – 1948), achieving the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

After the death of Antone Kuckuk in 1946 the building transferred to his two sons Athol and Rolland. They operated the site until the death of Athol in 1954 at which point his share went to his two children John Kuckuk and Inez Mintzlaff. At some point in the mid-1950s John Kuckuk bought out his sister’s shares and continued in partnership with Roland until the mid-1970s when John acquired complete ownership of the property from his uncle Rolland.

Kuckuk Jewelry store transferred to his son John on the death of Athol Kuckuk who died in 1954. John operated the business until the early 1960’s when he purchased the Shawano Shopper’s Guide from Wayne Wedde. Wayne Wedde started the Shawano Shopper’s Guide in 1955, operating for 7 years and then moving to Clintonville and selling the business to John Kuckuk who operated it until the late 1990’s.

In 1992 the life of this he building was renewed and became the home of The Gentlemen’s Quarter and later, R. Franklin’s.  Both were men’s retail clothing businesses.

Published in the Oshkosh Time May 18, 1902

Mr. Kuckuk is in the jewelry and music business in Shawano and has been established there since 1886. For a long time he was interested with J. H. Pulcifer in the general merchandise business, but dissolved a short time ago, Mr. Pulcifer now conducting that business. Mr. Kuckuk was born Feb. 10, 1863, at Schleisingerville, Wis., and when 12 years old he began as roustabout at a hotel in Hartford, Wis., at a salary of $5.00 per month. Two years later he went to Wausau, where he was in the employ of John Kiefer, a general merchant, as general clerk. He remained with him four years, then came to Shawano with H.H. Andrews, and remained with him five years. In 1886 he took charge of the jewelry business, conducted by G.D. Tolman.

Mr. Kuckuk is a graduate of Ophthalmic college of Chicago, the only graduate of that college in the county. He has been director of the Shawano Water Power & Improvement Company, and a member of the county board of supervisors, and honored with other minor officers by the people. He owns the building in which his business is located and also a very nice residence. At the present time he is a member of the board of public works in Shawano and is enjoying a large music and jewelry business. He handles only the best jewelry and musical instruments and is doing one of the best businesses in that line to be found anywhere. Mr. Kuckuk is a very popular gentleman and one who has done much for the advancement of Shawano. It is his pleasure to see the town grow and improve and he never allows an opportunity to pass where he can be of assistance in that direction.

From the 1999 National Register of Historic Places Registration application:

This two-story, eight-bay commercial block with cream brick veneer visually anchors the northwest corner of the historic district; it is adjoined to the north by a single one-story building constructed in 1949. The Kuckuk & Pulcifer Building bears the initials of its original owners in the center of the upper facade, which is surmounted by a pressed-metal cornice supported by singly-spaced shallow brackets decorated with oak leaves and small rosettes. The flat brick area, into which the initials and a smaller stone bearing the date of construction are set, is created by a three-course band of basketweave brick, which spans the facade between the corner piers. A simple pressed metal cornice spans the facade across the transoms of the second-story windows; each window is marked by a single short bracket projecting from the cornice at either side, thus achieving the appearance of individual hood molds from a single piece. The original double-hung windows have been replaced with glass block, and the storefront and transom have been altered with a cedar-shingled fixed canopy, commonly applied to Shawano downtown buildings in the early 1980s. Like almost all of the district’s pre-1900 commercial buildings, the storefront was altered at an earlier date.