Owned &
Operated by
West Branch Creative Arts Association
124 N. Fourth St.
West Branch, MI 48661-9060
989-345-1451

The Fourth St. Gift Shop & Gallery, formerly known as the Christmas Shoppe, was started in 1972 by a small group of artists and craftspeople as a six-week shopping experience just before Christmas. An empty storefront was used for several years. By 1978, the group had many new members and a corporation was formed and registered called the West Branch Creative Arts Association. The group bought the current buildings and rented out the apartment above to help make payments. The building was originally a blacksmith shop and over the years it housed a bump & paint shop, a pool hall, a Secretary of State office, a photography studio, a bridal shop, and an arts & crafts supply shop. In 1980, members refurbished the inside of the two buildings. The Shoppe opened year-round and after a few years, an entrance to the other building was made and the Gallery was opened. The building was paid off in 1986. The Christmas Shoppe was instituted to showcase the many talents of the members of Creative Arts and that tradition continues to the present at the Fourth St. Gift Shop & Gallery. All of the gifts and artwork are handmade by Michigan artists and craftspeople. Many are one-of-a-kind gifts. We are unique and very proud that we do not have commercial or imported goods for sale. The Shoppe is staffed by volunteers who cheerfully perform all the many duties involved in running a business. Creative Arts also sponsors the Youth Art Show in the Gallery in April, the Heritage Days Art Show & Sale in July, the Victorian Art Fair in Irons Park in August, the Hospice Quilt Show in the Gallery & town-wide in October, and a Cookie Sale in December. Please see our schedule of events and contact us with any questions. We welcome your visit!   A brief history As told by June Longstreet November, 2002 The last week in June the city had Old Fashioned Days. An Arts and Craft Show was held in the old community building at City Hall. The proceeds went to Muscular Dystrophy, Bernice (Bernie) Banghart and Joyce Hughey helped with this every year. Bernie had a consignment shop when she lived in Hawaii and in 1971 she talked to Joyce about opening a shop at Christmas time to make some extra money. They contacted some of the same people they knew from the art show to be in it. The store was open for 6 weeks and was named the Christmas Shop. The first year they were upstairs at the Barn Door Restaurant. Entry fee was $5.00 and 10% commission. Everyone was assigned their own space; they displayed their own merchandise and decorated their space as they wished. Members would take turns at being chairman each year. As Christmas came around every year they had to find a new place to open the store. A Victorian home on Houghton Avenue, or any store that happened to be empty at the time. The community was very supportive and every place they used was always given to them rent-free. In 1974 Bernie called three of the shop members together for a luncheon meeting at the Country Club. It was decided that they should become a non-profit organization. Attorney Bill Jennings drew up the by-laws and got everything through for them. They started the meetings on the first Tuesday of every month and took turns holding them in each other’s homes. My husband, Paul and I came into the group in 1975. Paul was chairman of the Centennial Committee and Creative Arts members helped put on the yearlong celebration. In 1977, as usual, we were looking for a place to hold Christmas Shop. The only empty building in town was at Bill Painters Bump Shop; the other side had been a pool hall. Paul contacted him and asked if we could use that side of the building, he said yes and as usual it was rent-free. During the course of the conversation he told Paul that it was for sale. He had been asking $40,000, but for the West Branch Creative Arts Association he would let them have it for $20,000. Paul, Bernie and Pete Ketzler met with Bill and it was decided that we could put $2,000 down and the rest on a land contract. Some of the members were against it. We Board members were so sure that this was the right thing to do, we pledged that if anything ever happened that we couldn’t meet the payments, we would get together and donate the money ourselves. Paul and Pete signed the contract and we were left with $2,000 in the savings. Paul took his vacation time and fixed up the apartment upstairs and we rented it to the City Prosecutor. We rented the pool hall side to a bridal shop and Paul and Ken Neubecker started fixing up the bump shop side to have for Christmas Shop. Gary Grubb did all the electrical. Christmas Shop was still 6 weeks of the year starting the last week in October. Our membership had grown so large we couldn’t assign each person their own space, as there wasn’t enough room in the store. We were well known by this time and had our usual grand opening every year for the new Christmas Season. The chairman and some of the members dressed in long dresses. The customers would be lined up outside waiting for us to open the door at 12 noon. Our prices were so good; other shops would come from out of town and buy things to sell in their stores. (We were at 15% commission with extra credit for working). It took four people behind the counter to keep up with sales. All the members came for that day; we took turns behind the counter and helping on the floor. The store was so crowded you could hardly move around in there. We took in about $3,000 in the first four hours. By five o’clock we were all exhausted but it was a lot of fun. We had coffee and cookies for the customers; they would chat with each other, some of them met once a year at grand opening of Christmas Shop. After we closed, everyone would go home and start working like crazy to get the store filled up again for the next day. The store stayed open for six weeks each year until "The Manor House" opened up. I was chairman at the time and felt we needed to be open all year to compete, and that’s how we became a full year around shop.