209 E Main - Mad Flea

Built around 1880, 209 E. Main St. this three-story Italianate building has been the home to several businesses throughout its history. Of these businesses, the longest was the J F Wells & Co. furniture store. The proprietor, Frank Wells, like many in Madison, also lived above the store with his family. The first floor of this building remained a furniture store until 1949. But there was something truly unique about this store – it had strong ties to the Vail family and funeral home and sold caskets in addition to furniture.

Cornelius Vail and J. H. White formed the Vail & White Furniture and Undertaking Company. The partners made their own caskets from wood felled in the nearby hardwood forests or they could order metal “burial cases.” They also crafted cabinets, chairs, mattresses, and looking glasses. The seven-member firm purportedly aided in the burial of President Zachary Taylor and former Vice President John C. Calhoun in 1850. After several years Vail bought out White, continuing to both make furniture and provide funeral arrangements, bringing in his son, George, to help with the business.

Cornelius Vail was the son of a master shipbuilder, Thomas, who built military craft for the War of 1812, piloting them down the Ohio and the Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans for service on the American side. Before the Civil War some believed that buying premade caskets was sacrilegious and one report noted that Vail was “almost mobbed for buying a small stock of ‘factory’ coffins.” People must have grown used to the idea of having premade coffins around because Vail remained in charge of the business until his death.

By 1861 Cornelius changed the name of the business to C. Vail & Son.

George Vail was born in Madison the same year his father and White began their partnership. He worked in Richmond for four years before moving back to Madison to help his father. George became the sole proprietor of the firm after his father’s death and like his father included his sons in the business, changing the name of the company to George C. Vail & Sons in 1895. Throughout this period the partners continued to make furniture from a store on the west side of West Street between Main and Second Streets. By the turn of the century the furniture store could boast of having a wide selection of Victor Victrolas in stock as well as a complete catalog of records, numbering more than 5,000 recordings.

Frank and Harry Vail continued the traditions began by their grandfather and father after George’s death in late 1920. Frank’s son, Dana Vail, took over the business after his father’s death. Dana closed the furniture store around or shortly before 1949, but a longtime employee of Vail’s Furniture Store, John Gans, continued to sell furniture at 209–211 East Main, the last building that housed the furniture department, after Vail closed the store.

Architecturally, this is a significant example of a commercial building constructed in the Italianate style popular during the late 19th century. The masonry building still shows its original character on the second and third

floors and even features historic wood windows with stone sills. Like many historic commercial retail buildings, the first-floor storefront, however, has been modified. The plate glass windows you see today along the first-floor frontage were installed sometime in the early to mid-20th century. Likewise, the area above the plate glass windows and awnings where the panels have been altered probably around the same time. Originally, the first floor of this building featured large multi-paned windows on the street frontage and prism glass block transom where the panels are currently.