Repair, not replace: Downtown Kenosha’s Le Esther’s [Video]

Down the street from the Kenosha Post Office at 710 57th St. is a small storefront with a vintage neon sign.

It’s Le Esther’s, a lamp shop offering repairs, parts and custom pieces, and as one of the last in the region it’s found a niche in a market very different from the one it was founded in decades ago.

Walking in reveals a small forest of lamps, lights and shades. Scattered across worktables, shelves and cupboards are spare parts, finials, shades and tools of different shapes and sizes.

It looks like an “old man repair shop,” said Chris Allemand, laughing. She and her husband Steve are co-owners and operators of the longtime business.

Lamp repairers are “notorious junk collectors,” Steve said, keeping every piece and part they find. After all, today it might be worthless, but one day when a lamp breaks and it’s the one piece they need, …