Laurie Ramesbothom of Stockville is renovating a main street building in downtown Holbrook, and will call her antique and art shop, bakery and ice cream parlor "Phoebe Delia's Mercantile." Laurie's passion is period textiles, jewelry and clothing; about 100 of her pieces appear in the movie "Titanic." Others are worn in the movies "The Age of Innocence" and "Legends of the Fall," and in many Hallmark Channel movies. "Phoebe Delia's Mercantile," above right, an antique shop, bakery, ice cream parlor and bridal boutique, will be housed in a renovated building in downtown Holbrook. (Connie Jo Discoe/McCook Daily Gazette) [Click to enlarge]

HOLBROOK -- Combine Laurie's passion for vintage textiles and antique jewelry with her husband's carpentry skills and desire to promote Highway 34, and the result is a one-in-a-million shop that Laurie will call "Phoebe Delia's."

Laurie Ramesbothom and her husband, Fred Baugher, of Stockville, are saving one of the dilapidated turn-of-the-last-century wood-and-brick buildings in downtown Holbrook. When top-to-bottom renovation is completed this summer, Laurie's shop will house an antique, art and restoration shop, bakery, ice cream parlor and bridal boutique.

Laurie wants to name the shop after her great-great-great-grandmother, Phoebe Delia Hazelwinkle, and call it "Phoebe Delia's Mercantile."

"I'm more excited about this store than anything we've ever done," Laurie said, smiling in the midst of the demolition and construction that started in April 2007.

Laurie is incredulous that anyone would want to bulldoze the aging buildings on Holbrook's main street -- she can see incredible potential in each. Despite the decay and debris in the building that Laurie bought, she could see the possibilities. "It's amazing what you can find under all the layers," Laurie said.

What roof was left on Laurie's 30x80-foot building had leaked for 50-plus years, snow-melt and rainwater dripping onto and through hardwood flooring beneath it. "There were tons of old auto parts stored in here, and engines oozing something all over the floors," she said.

"There was so much debris ... some of it was frozen into the ice and snow," Laurie said, but it wasn't all useless junk. Laurie and Fred discovered an old ribbon- and cloth-cutting tool, and old shoes, probably from the 1920's. "We sold most of the shoes to finance the new roof," Laurie said.

Laurie plans to fashion a food booth from the dark-wood case and mellowed-yellow solid cyprus soundboard of an old piano.

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"I have to save stuff," Laurie laughed. "I'm maniacal about it."

Fred's cousin helped repair and paint the original tin ceiling, meticulously restoring what he could, Laurie said, and finding replacement panels to match when he had to.

Some of the flooring has been replaced and some has been repaired. The really cruddy spots have been cleaned to a soft sheen with a degreasing solvent purchased from a commercial cleaning company in Cambridge.

Fred has removed the old wall plaster below the chair rail to expose the soft red bricks. Laurie has painted the soaring 16-foot, two-story-or-more walls a warm, buttery yellow and a vibrant, mossy green, and highlighted the carved-plaster crown moulding with gold leafing. When they were painted, the ceiling's tin panels took on an aged-gold patina that matches perfectly with the walls and molding.

The original stairway leading to what will be the bridal boutique will be the shop's focal point, Laurie said, its spindles painted three colors to compliment the green-yellow-and-gold of the rest of the shop.

Fred has rebuilt the store's front exterior, removing cobbled-together garage doors and installing massive sheets of plate glass and a set of French doors. He's also replaced damaged brickwork.

Laurie wants to hang a canopy over the front sidewalk.

"Thank goodness Fred's a commercial contractor," Laurie said, smiling at her husband. "I couldn't do all this if we had to hire a contractor."

Laurie and Fred don't know too much about the history of the building and would love to talk to anyone who knows anything about their building or any of the other buildings along Holbrook's main street.

Laurie's building was a dry good store at the turn of the 20th century, she said. Someone had a shooting gallery in the basement; the targets are still there. In the 1940s and 1950s, it was an IGA store.

Laurie hopes that sales tickets found in an old register box will shed some light on what was sold and when.

Fred pulled a 1915-1920 abstract on the building, and will be able to tell from that the size of the original lot, Laurie said. The building's metal work is certainly art nouveau, she said, a style of art, architecture and design popular from about 1880 through 1914 and characterized by highly-stylized, flowing designs often incorporating floral and plant-inspired motifs.

"I wish these walls could talk," Laurie said. "It's a magnificent old building. I'm so excited to be able to save it."

Fred added, "Two more years of water through that roof, and there wouldn't have been anything to save."

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"Phoebe Delia's Mercantile" will be eclectic -- from art and antiques to jewelry to jalapeņos.

Like in her former shop in Longmont, Colo., and on her current Internet site, "A Ladies Gallery of Fine Antiques," Laurie will sell antique jewelry, clothing and textiles. "They're my expertise, my passion. Old textiles make me go weak in the knees," Laurie smiled.

Laurie will sell antique furniture in the shop, as well as books. "But not new books," Laurie said, "collectible books, very old books, coffee table books. Lots of Nebraska history books."

Laurie will also offer some restoration of art, including rebeading of antique beaded purses.

There will also be "lots of things fun to decorate with," Laurie said.

Laurie hopes brides will come in and have fun in her bridal boutique. "Nothing is more enjoyable than seeing a bride opt for a piece of antique jewelry over department-store plastic," Laurie said.

The bakery will offer coffee and rolls, and "my grandmother's state-fair prize-winning pecan pie," Laurie said. Her brother-in-law is a Kansas City dessert chef, and will share some of his recipes, she said.

Laurie now sells her homemade salsa and hot pepper mash through HoJo's Restaurant in Holbrook, and will sell it in her shop.

Laurie also plans to cooperate with Holbrook's own "Grow Nebraska," which markets Nebraska-grown and Nebraska-made artisan products.

Laurie plans a grand opening, "a great big party," when Phoebe Delia's opens.

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Laurie looks forward to the hometown support of her new store; Fred wants to branch out even further, selling wholesale and on the Internet, and luring travelers off Interstate 80 and onto Highway 6-34 that passes through Holbrook.

"I don't like Interstate 80," Fred says. "My idea on this thing," he said, is to write or commission a coffee table book on the past and the today of Highway 34, which runs from Riverside, Ill., to Granby, Colo.

And -- no doubt -- sell the book at Phoebe Delia's.

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Laurie grew up in Manhattan, Kan., and lived for 20 years in Denver. Fred had lived in Denver for 30 years, before the couple followed Fred's brother to Stockville several years ago.

Fred, a commercial contractor who specialized in bank construction, has worked in McCook several times, building the First National Bank building at West First and D for Harold Larmon in the 1970s and rebuilding and expanding McCook National Bank for Pete Graff after a fire in September 1981. "I've always liked the people in McCook," Fred said.

Laurie is very impressed with Holbrook, and its residents' reaction to their renovation project. "This is the most welcoming neighborhood," Laurie said. "It's very refreshing." She added, with a smile, "The people at HoJo's are just like a second family."

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Laurie has been collecting antiques since she was 12 years old, and even bought and sold antiques to pay for college in Lincoln.

Laurie's dad restored old tractors, Fred said, adding, "It's a disease."

Laurie's owned and operated shops in Denver and in Longmont, but she's most excited about the shop in Holbrook. "I want it yesterday," she said.

-- To see some of Laurie's vintage textiles and jewelry -- and even some of the old auto parts that she found in the renovation of the Holbrook building -- go to: rubylane.com Type in "A Ladies Gallery of Fine Antiques" in the "Find a Shop" blank, and enjoy.