Three new businesses make a home on Fourth Street

Mabel has sat empty for several years but thanks to friendship and a personal relationship with Huntingburg’s Fourth Street, she is now hosting three businesses and loads of new memories.

Mark and Paula Marshall have teamed up with their friend, Kim Bratton, to offer some unique new options on the historic street.

Mabel, whose address is 305 East Fourth Street, is the building Mark and Paula bought last fall. Paula and Kim gave the building the name. They thought it was a good fit as the pair and their husbands and family members stripped her down to her 1928 beauty on the inside.

Mark and Paula consider themselves lucky to have the building. Mabel had been empty for about 13 years when the “For Sale” sign went in the window moments before Mark and Paula Marshall pulled up to catch a meal at Mama T’s across the street.

“We pulled up and I said, ‘oh my gosh, it’s finally for sale,'” said Paula.

The couple lives in Jasper, but Mark’s connection with Fourth Street is deep, literally. He was the project manager for the Stellar Community project that updated the infrastructure and face of Fourth Street.

During the year-long project to update the historic downtown thoroughfare, Mark’s job had him constantly meeting and talking with business and property owners up and down Huntingburg’s heartland.

The relationships built from that project are what put him in front of Mabel with Paula that night and the first to call the realtor. “We were the first people to call,” Mark explained. “Four or five other people called within an hour of the sign being put up.”

But the realtor said they got to him first so they were allowed the first opportunity to purchase it.

When they first stepped into the building, they saw Mabel’s beauty through the drop ceilings, old dental equipment, holes in the floors and needed updates she was going to need. They decided they were up for the job of renovating her.

Between Kim’s husband’s skills, Mark’s experience, and other family members’ vocations, they set to work last November to get Mabel into shape.

Brick walls now peak through plaster below the vaulted ceiling with the tin ceiling now exposed. Natural light fills the room from the exposed upper windows on the face of the building.

While Mark’s passion fills the front room as Marshall’s Mancave, Kim has added her unique, custom repurposed decorations in a new shop called Vintage Possibilities, and Paula, a massage therapist, has added her practice, Pause with Paula, in the back with a new, makeover space for children’s parties.

Paula has operated her business for more than 20 years and most recently in Jasper at David’s Hair Salon. Before coming to Huntingburg, she had told Mark she thought it would be nice to have a place of her own.

She and Mark also had an issue. Mark is passionate about collecting memorabilia. A passion that extends to just about anything collectible.

“And I encouraged him to please get these things. This is your hobby,” she laughed. “And it got out of control!”

Mark has been collecting a plethora of memorabilia with a heavy emphasis on sport-related items since he was a child. His father was a big sports fan and took his Mark to different events in the area.

Boxing got him hooked on collecting. His dad had taken him to a fight in Indianapolis where Mark got his first autograph.

“It was Big John Tate and Duane Bobick,” Mark said. “Leon Spinks was there signing autographs. I’m like 13 years old, weighed 50 pounds, you know, and he is just gigantic. He’s wearing a full-length fur coat and a hat with a feather sticking out of it.”

But, he was very nice to Mark and that’s what kindled his passion for sports memorabilia.

Ever since then, he’s been on the lookout for special pieces, baseball cards, jerseys, and doggedly pursued autographs — even showing up at his targets’ homes to politely ask.

Paula says boxes of collectibles regularly show up on their front porch.

Over the years, Mark has developed an eye for finding interesting and valuable collectible items ranging from classic toys and comics to Larry Bird’s locker name tag. Sometimes, he searches for things, sometimes, he happens to find things in unlikely places and sometimes, they just happen to fall in his lap. Regardless, he’s amassed a large collection of interesting items.

The collection is so large, that the couple had to rent a storage unit.

But the boxes kept coming and four out of five vacations involve flea markets so Paula knew something had to be done. Mabel is the solution for both of them. Mark has space for his collectibles and Paula has her own therapy room as well.

Mark still works as a project manager for VS Engineering during the week. But, according to Paula, now his face lights up when he comes in the store now that it is open.

“It’s very cool,” Mark said. “I never envisioned in my whole life that something like this would happen.”

Mark credits Paula for encouraging his hobby as well as so many people that worked to bring the store to downtown.

Along with the memorabilia, he has more than 2,000 comic books for kids to peruse, many available for a dollar. Plus, thousands of sports cards and other items they can buy for themselves. “They can buy comics. They can buy cards. We’ve got a Playstation set up if they want to hang out and play,” Mark explained. “We just want a place for kids.”

Kim has been friends with Paula for several years. She was intrigued when Paula asked her to join them in the new business. She was also ready for a change after working in corporate positions most of her adult life.

She didn’t know what she could do as a business though. However, for years her outlet had been repurposing furniture and other items into unique artistic decorations.

“I’m sitting in my antique room and I’m thinking ‘Okay God, tell me what I could do. Hit me with it,'” Kim explained. “I’m looking around at all the furniture I’ve redone and all the antiques I have and I’m thinking hit me with it.”

“Come on God, hit me with it.”

This went on for a while until finally, she realized God was hitting her with it. It had been in front of her in her antique room.

Now unique items fill her new shop, Vintage Possibilities, in the renewed building. Each piece is a one-of-a-kind work of art looking for a new home to bring delight.

Paula loves working with her clients and meeting their needs through her therapeutic massages. But many times, she finds herself providing a listening ear as well. “I have always loved massage therapy,” she said. “I get to make people feel better.”

She is a nationally certified massage therapist specializing in sports massage, infant, Swedish, Hot Stones, girls spa services and tea parties, according to her Facebook Page.

She has a steady clientele already visiting her in the new location.

But, Mark’s area in the new store is also exciting for her. She loves comics, especially Wonder Woman. “I still have a subscription to Wonder Woman,” Paula said joking that many times, Mark reads the comic before she has a chance to.

Marshall’s Mancave and Vintage Possibilities is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturdays. You can follow them on Facebook for more information at the following links: Marshall’s Mancave, phone 812-638-0074; Vintage Possibilities, phone 812-598-0078; and Pause with Paula, phone 812-677-7018.