Dry goods stores were nothing new, back in 1912, when the Krauses came to Congress Park. The Old West was full of them, as was the old east, and even the old Midwest.

Every town of decent size had at least one such store to cater mostly to the needs of its female citizenry. What they found in these stores were pre-sewn, “store-bought” clothing, blankets and the like, and especially the basic fabrics and sewing needs for the women and girls who were handy with a needle.

“Martha Krause opened her first notions and fabric store in Berwyn around 1909 or 1910,” remembers John A. Krause, Martha’s grandson. “Her husband, Adolph, had been a doctor at the Rush Medical School in Chicago, and had died.”

Martha and her son, Edward, decided to relocate in 1912 to the Congress Park section of Brookfield. Here they opened a small fabric department, probably in part of Edward Koch’s tailoring shop (the eastern section of the music shop, “A Sound Education,” currently at 9433 Ogden Ave.).

But her business was expanding. In 1913, Martha erected her own building a few doors west, at 9441 Ogden Ave., with living quarters in the rear. With the help of her son, she opened the dry goods store.

According to John Krause, it was not solely a dry goods store, at first, but a small department store selling many different items. Maybe that is where the “notions” part of the business came into being-they were selling anything they had a “notion” to.

It was apparent from the very start they were catering to the female population of Brookfield and Congress Park, in particular. It became a place where women could go to see the newest fashions in pattern books and ladies’ magazines, and to gossip and exchange recipes.

In August 1917, when Elizabeth Shroyer of 4434 Dubois Blvd. began the first Girl Scout troop in Brookfield, there were no mass-produced uniforms for the girls, aged 10 and up. In fact, there wasn’t any standard uniform at all.

Girls were free to assemble their own standard troop uniform, in a style to be followed by all the “patrol.” The usual fabric color was blue. So when the troop was formed, the girls went to Krause’s for their cloth and handmade their uniforms from scratch.

Years later, when Girl and even Boy Scout uniforms were being commercially made, they were sold at Krause’s. Upon joining the scouts, a child in Congress Park would go here for his or her official clothing, scouting handbooks and equipment.

When the 1920s and 30s rolled around, Krause’s was selling radios along with girdles and dress patterns. They were renting out jigsaw puzzles and books during the Depression years. During World War II, when everyone was having to “make do, or do without” for the war effort, Krause’s really flourished in the fabric business. After the war, the radios were out and the fabric was totally in. For one thing, television was coming into prominence.

Fabric was the king or, rather, the queen of Krause’s business and remained so for around three more decades, until laboriously sewing clothes died in popularity.

But a few years before that, in 1968, an old-time spirit returned to Krause’s when ladies and girls from all over Brookfield came to find supplies and patterns to sew old-fashioned costumes to wear during the village’s Diamond Jubilee.

Edward Krause was still going strong at that time, and his photo, in his old dry goods store, appeared in the official Diamond Jubilee book.

During the late 1950s and early 1960s, Krause’s had a very famous customer, the burlesque star Gypsy Rose Lee, who used to play at Mangam’s Chateau at 7850 Ogden Ave., in Lyons.

“She used to come in here, every time she was in town,” John Krause recently revealed.

“She wrote a check to us that bounced,” he added, laughing.

Around 1980 after Edward Krause retired, Bernice “Boots” Krause, John’s wife since 1954, took over full operation of the business. It was still a fabric store. During the 1980s, she saw that solely selling fabrics and sewing supplies was becoming less profitable.

Gradually she converted the store into an interior decorating shop, selling modern and vintage fabrics as a sideline. She sold custom made draperies, furniture upholstery, wallpaper, artwork, and even antiques. Soon she was running a miniature version of an antique mall. Krause’s even became a small museum.

Among the antiques and shelves and tables of fabrics and remnants, above the charmingly lit, homey alcove on the east wall, were seven wooden chairs of old-fashioned styles, dating back to the 1860s. There was even an old wooden school note-taking chair among them.

Boots Krause was not ignoring the store’s fabric side, though. In a way, she expanded it. A yellow cardboard sign stated that she wanted to “buy old fabrics (silks, velvets, quilts, laces, tapestries, coverlets, rugs, etc.) It’s okay if they have some bad spots.”

The back room and former living quarters were used for antiques display. Upstairs, in the kitchen, antiques and collectibles that fit into a kitchen atmosphere could be found. Rooms looked interestingly and appropriately decorated with items that just happened to also be for sale.

Krause’s had its own personal antiques to show off, too-shop fixtures the store had used for decades and was still using. On the ground floor, an oak Blyda Spool Silk Thread cabinet still sat strong and snug, with reels of colored thread still behind its glass front. The cabinet had been in use since the 1920s, at least.

Another antique still in use in the 1990s was the business’s old cash register. In 1993, Boots Krause said that “the store was broken into a few years ago, and it was one of the few times I had locked the old original register. They [the thieves] broke into it, damaging the top of the cash drawer. I had just considered, the day before, taking home some $200 in excess cash and silver dollars, when on Sunday, the next day, the robbers smashed in the front door and sent shattered glass everywhere.”

She lost all the money in the register.

She added that business was still down, although adding some more antique dealers had helped a bit. Still, the writing was on the wall. It came as a shock to the Congress Park community when, in January 1995, Boots announced that the store would soon be closing.

She expected first that the store would close in March, but the last day Krause’s was open turned out to be April 8, 1995.

“It had been the longest operating store in Brookfield under a single family ownership,” stated Boots Krause last week. In all, the store operated from 1913 to 1995, some 82 years. The store had sold dry goods fabrics for all its life.

In the years since 1995, Boots Krause’s passions have remained untouched by time. “Fabrics is still my love; fabrics and art,” she said.

Much of the store’s contents, including fabric, was sold to friend and antique-lover Laura Heath of Riverside. The store itself was sold, and is now a residence. The open lot to the east of the store has been completely fenced off. Curiously, a solitary wooden chair has been sitting in the old store window for a long time.

Boots and John Krause moved to Camdenton, Mo., where they have been ever since. But that is about to change. They have revealed that they are planning to move back a little closer, to Lafayette, Ind., “because we still have kids in Wheaton and Countryside.”

And how did she get the nickname “Boots?” As she tells it, “Because when I was about a year old, my 2-year-old brother, Clarence, couldn’t say my name, Bernice, and it came out like ‘Bootie.’ From then on I was called ‘Boots,’ and I’m still called that name.”

There are always some people who are not forgotten, and there are some businesses that leave a sticking, fond memory for years after they have ceased. The longtime reign of Krause’s Dry Goods store, where anyone could buy a button or a bolt of material has not been forgotten.