Kean's looks to reopen Dec. 3, with help from lots of friends
MASON – Since the 1920s, people from all over have been coming to the Kean's Store Co. to shop.
Now they're coming to help, and the drive to get the fire-damaged landmark reopened by a target date of Dec. 3 has been a community one, if not a regional one.
And it appears Kean's will make it. Arrangements already are being made to have Santa Claus back.
Kean's, along with the adjoining Baja Grille and 10 upper-level apartments, was ravaged in June 21 blaze that Mason fire officials believe originated in the restaurant. No one was hurt, but the businesses were forced to close and the apartment tenants were displaced.
Today the Baja Grille remains closed but half of the apartments have renters again.
And with the gift area and the candy counter being the only big jobs left — yes, the iconic counter and its awning will be back — Kean's is starting to get festive.
"We have to bring up all the toys and the candy," said Teresa Wren, who owns the store with her husband, Steve, and whose family founded Kean's in 1928.
Summer was a time to clear out ruined merchandise, restore the smoke-damaged interior and reorder new items.
With that accomplished, Kean's last week needed volunteers for the store's rebirth.
They came in droves.
Stephanie Rawson, a retired woodcarver whose work was carried by Kean's for years, is coordinating the volunteer effort, largely through a Friends of Kean's Facebook page.
"We put the call to action on Facebook and we reached 3,000 people in one night and had 60 shares," Rawson said Thursday as the aroma of food in metal bins wafted through Wren's back office, "It was an impressive way for this community to reach out to Teresa."
The heavy things began rolling in Tuesday.
"We needed men," Rawson said. "We needed male help that first day to a do a lot of heavy lifting, and I would say 30 men showed up that day."
Rawson said she reached out to the Knights of Columbus, the Mason Optimist Club and even retirees. One of the men showing up Tuesday was in his 90s, she said.
State Rep. Tom Cochran, D-Mason, pitched in, and so did members of the city's Fire Department, even Chief Kerry Minshall.
Minshall described his relationship with Kean's as personal as well as professional. His wife, Kerri, worked at Kean's in high school, and onetime owner Warner Kean, who acquired the current store property on the 400-block of South Jefferson Street, was with the Fire Department for many years, Minshall said.
"We have a connection on many levels with both the Kean family and the business," he said. "It's very gratifying to have a successful outcome where we've saved not only a family business but a huge historical icon for the city of Mason."
The lifting wasn't as challenging on Wednesday, and about 50 people came in to help the Kean's employees set up, Rawson said. Employee volunteers came from Ace Hardware and the Mason Veterinary Clinic, she said. Ware's Pharmacy and the Vault Delicatessen provided food and hydration.
"People from all over the community came," Rawson said. Others came from as far away as Perry, Jackson and Haslett.
Soon it will be time to lift the heavy candy counter back into place, and there will be plenty of young muscle to do it.
About a dozen Mason High School football players will provide it.
"Steve and Teresa Wren are really good pillars of the Mason community," varsity coach Jerry VanHavel said. "The Wrens have done a lot for football at Mason High School, so we wanted to help out in any way we could."
Sitting in her office, Wren mused about how easy it's been to find a parking space in downtown Mason since the store closed.
"That'll come to an end," she chuckled.
Rawson said she knows why: "People come to Kean's because it's an event, it's a memory. Kean's is full of memories. Generations of memories."
Contact Curt Smith at (517) 377-1226 or csmith@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @CurtSmithLSJ.