An eye for the unusual and a taste for the historical got Mike Williams started in the architectural salvage business 25 years ago. What's kept his business flourishing ever since is a feel for what his customers may need next.

        Diversifying within a well-defined niche has earned Mr. Williams and his wife, Patty, customers who turn to the company for everything from antique doorknobs to architecturally-based garden accessories. It has enabled the couple to expand from their original Central Avenue location to Montgomery and, this month, to Lebanon.

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Woodennickelantiques.net

SELLING TREASURES

Mike and Patty Williams consider their downtown business a “destination store,” frequented by rehabbers on a budget as well as by high-end builders. Antique furniture runs from $500 to $15,000; fireplace mantels cost from $250 to $2,500 and bars — complete with beveled mirrors — fetch anywhere from $5,000 to about $30,000.   Salvaged and custom-made bars from the Wooden Nickel can be found in a number of area eateries, including The Precinct, Carlos and Johnny's, Friendly Stop Cafe, Mount Adams Bar and Grill and Chez Nora.   Faced with a large demand for antique entry doors and a very small supply, the couple located a company that produced the right look and the right quality to complement older homes.   Mrs. Williams, with a degree in interior design, works with customers to select and harmonize elements they purchase from the Wooden Nickel.   The Wooden Nickel is at 1400-1414 Central Parkway, Over-the-Rhine, 241-2985; 9748 Montgomery Road, Montgomery, 985-9003; and 27 W. Mulberry St., Lebanon, 934-1296.

        Mr. Williams says that he started in business with $150 and a pickup truck. His biggest asset was an appreciation for old buildings.

        “I watched them tear down a house across the street from me in Mount Auburn. It made me sick,” said Mr. Williams.

        That experience motivated him to salvage anything he could from houses slated for demolition. Over the years, he and his crew have carefully removed doors, windows, sculptural elements and hardware from the structures for reuse in other buildings.

        “If it's not big and heavy, we don't generally want it,” he said with a laugh. “I was never into glassware and doilies.”

        Those salvage jobs have taken Mr. Williams many places. He's overseen the dismantling of fine old homes throughout the Tristate area and has removed curiosities and things of beauty from commercial establishments and public institutions.

        As the historic preservation movement has grown, the salvage portion of Wooden Nickel's business has declined. To satisfy customer demand, the Williamses have hired artisans who create antique-looking stained glass works and build reproduction bars and other large wooden items.

        Those workshops occupy the second floor of the Wooden Nickel building. Since moving into the Central Parkway premises in 1981, the business has gradually expanded into every available crevice. Large furniture, windows, mantelpieces and doors fill the street-level showrooms. An interior courtyard holds wrought iron work and exterior sculpture.

        The 1998 addition of a store in Montgomery was designed to capture another market and funnel suburbanites to the original store.

        “A lot of our customer base was there, but it was amazing how many people didn't know about us,” Mr. Williams explained. “We wanted to raise our profile and educate the public about what we do.”

        Added Mrs. Williams: “The store provided a little bit of an incentive to get people” to come to Over-the-Rhine.

        And Over-the-Rhine has been the heart of the couple's business.

        “We lived over the shop for years. We are invested downtown people,“ she said.

        “Then came April of this year,” Mr. Williams said. “We were really heartbroken when we had to board up our store, but there were 15,000 people out in front. The police precinct office is right across the street.“

        After the riots, the couple saw their walk-in business decline dramatically. They changed their business strategy to combat the doldrums.

        “We have an advantage over restaurants and some other stores in this area,” Mr. Williams explained. “When it got slow we were able to send stuff to auction.”

        With a Web site and full-color ads in specialty publications, Wooden Nickel concentrated on developing its regional business as well as its Montgomery customer base. The Williamses also decided on a bricks-and-mortar expansion to Lebanon as a hedge against a possible long-term slump downtown.

        “We love downtown and have no plans to move,” Mr. Williams explained. “But we were not going to slowly bleed to death here. We figured if we were going to go out, we would go out in flames.”

        So the couple went shop shopping in Lebanon and immediately found what they wanted: a prime space downtown formerly occupied by Uniquities, an upscale antiques consignment gallery owned by interior designer Gerald Miller.

        “Jerry had put the "For Rent' sign in the window the day before,” said Mrs. Williams.

        To prepare for their new venture, the Williams spent August in Europe on their first-ever buying trip abroad.

        “We were buying different things for a different market,” she explained. “We went over there and spread our net further and wider, branching into different eras, different styles, not just Victorian.”

        The Lebanon store has already taken on its own character, featuring high-end European furnishings and home accessories. The Montgomery shop is slanted toward garden accessories: fountains, urns and related merchandise.

        “I was in all three of our stores one day recently and noticed that all three of them look entirely and markedly different,” Mrs. Williams observed. “I think it's because of the way we've shifted the merchandise around to meet the needs of that particular market. In our little specialty world we are very diversified, but it's all related.”

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