Family business continues to thrive
Mary Lee Witt helps her customer, Deb Brown, with a matting and framing order. Witt’s Custom Framing and Gallery has been an Elkader business fixture since the late 1800s.
By Pam Reinig
Register Editor
Picture this: In 1895, when Elkader was still a young town with just a handful of retail shops, a well-known cabinetmaker relocated here from Garnavillo. He and his partner built a structure on Main Street, which locals called the Regan and Witt Building after the two men who built it—William E. Witt, the cabinetmaker, and Mr. Regan, his partner.
As the years passed, the building changed hands and the businesses located there also changed. Today, the former Regan and Witt Building is home to Subway sandwich shop. A branch of the enterprise Witt launched is still in business several blocks north of the original location. The business is Witt’s Custom Framing and Gallery, and William E. Witt’s great-granddaughter, Mary Lee Witt, operates it. She is the fourth generation of her family to run it.
While Mary Lee focuses on picture framing and woodworking, the generations preceding her had careers in the funeral business, as well.
“When my great-grandfather began the funeral business, one could not make a living just by being an undertaker so he combined the funeral business with a furniture store,” Mary Lee explained, adding that the store did framing and sold all styles of handmade furniture as well as carpet, linoleum, window shades and sewing machines.
“In 1921, my grandfather, William J. Witt, became a licensed embalmer and joined his father’s business,” Mary Lee continued. “In 1948, William E. (my father) and Donald C. both graduated from the Hohenshuh-Carpenter College of Mortuary. Both brothers joined the firm, forming the partnership of William J. Witt & Sons.”
Mary Lee joined the family enterprise as an associate in 1974 and in 1989 moved the picture-framing business to her current location, 501 North Main Street. The shop also carries unique and ornate giftware items, original art prints and more. Witt’s has their own line of specialty matts, which are made in the shop, as well as a line of oak, cherry and walnut mouldings made from locally grown wood.
“The past few years I have been designing and making cremation urns from local wood, too,” Mary Lee added.
Woodworking is a Witt family tradition that Mary Lee proudly continues. Following in her great-grandfather’s footsteps, she has 16 quality, handcrafted grandfather clocks to her credit. She makes everything from children’s rocking chairs to end tables to quilt stands to candlesticks.
My dad was an excellent woodworker,” she recalled. “Since he was on call 24/7/365 at the funeral home, he spent much of his time either fixing or selling sewing machines or creating something in the basement wood shop. Since I tagged my father everywhere, I learned woodworking and picture-framing from him, and continued my learning with professional framing classes.”
“I have always been interested in wood and when I was in the fourth grade, I received my own wood-turning lathe,” she continued. Mary Lee now has three lathes and plenty of other tools of her own, though there are several of her great-grandfather’s that she still uses including his framing hammer and miter vises.
Witt’s Custom Framing and Galley employs one person, Judy Wellendorf, who has worked there since 1985. The shop’s longevity earned a Century Business Award from the Iowa Department of Economic Development in 2002.
Owning a small business can be a challenge in this era of big box stores and mass production. But her family’s reputation and the quality of their work has earned Mary Lee a loyal following,
“I have lived and worked in Elkader all my life and I truly enjoy working and living in our small community,” Mary lee said. “No two work days are alike and it’s always interesting to see what unique items our customers bring in to have framed. The rewards (of small business ownership) are plenty and I plan on continuing this family tradition in the years to come.”
