View area storm coverage and share your photos.

Historic Utica Store set to close

John Oncken  —  5/13/2008 4:56 pm

After 136 years of serving southeastern Dane County, the Utica Store is closing its doors on June 1.

Maybe.

Barney Lambert and Jackie Sperle, who have operated this friendly store selling the essentials of life, are closing a 30-year chapter of their lives as owners, operators, counselors, advisers, sympathizers and providers to a unique community of farmers and rural residents.

The little store at the corner of County W and County B, about halfway between Stoughton and Cambridge, has been for sale for three years. There have been lots of lookers but so far no buyers. The owners and the community still have hopes that someone will assume the position of guardian of history and provider for the future by buying the store. That heritage extends back to 1872.

Lambert and Sperle are looking forward to another chapter in their lives but would dearly love to leave their store in good hands.

That's why they have scheduled an open house for Saturday, May 31 and an auction of the store and everything that's in it for a week later on June 7.

But, they hope a buyer will be found before that date. Lambert said Utica Store in not just a business, it's a place where you get and receive a lot of love, a place where memories are made and generations grow up.

John Oncken  —  5/13/2008 4:56 pm