Van Horne Jewelers marks 90 years in business - South Bend Tribune
On Kristine Glassburn's desk at Van Horne Jewelers are pages and pages of "wish list" items. The list details pieces of jewelry that women have picked out. Every year around the holidays, Glassburn, a buyer and gemologist at Van Horne, calls up husbands letting them know that if they're looking for gift ideas, their wives have picked out some things at the jewelry store.
"A lot of them are really happy that I called them," she laughs.
The Van Horne staff attributes services like that for the store's years of success — 90 years to be exact. The jewelry store started in downtown South Bend in 1926 as the Van Horne & Co. Jewelers, started by the Van Horne family.
But there was only one son in the Van Horne family, and after trying out the family business for a summer, he decided it wasn't for him, says Madison Knight Jr., president of Van Horne. Knight has been working with Van Horne for a little more than 40 years, since his early teen years, he says, because it was his father who took over the business.
It was his father's time serving in WWII, though, that got Knight Sr. on his way into the jewelry business. Knight Sr. worked in the instrument shop, serving on the USS Saratoga. Because he was mechanically inclined, he would often repair watches for other sailors.
After the war, Knight Sr., who was from a small town in Illinois, attended Bradley University in Peoria, Ill. After graduation, he became a professional watchmaker and worked for a couple of businesses before eventually ending up at Van Horne in South Bend.
With no one in the Van Horne family willing to take over, Knight Sr. bought the store in the 1960s and carried it on as a family business.
In its 90 years, Van Horne has had only three locations. First it was located where the parking lot of the Teachers Credit Union now sits on West Washington Street, and then it had the space now occupied by Cafe Navarre. In 2007, the store moved to a newly built store at Heritage Square in Mishawaka.
"The move was a huge step in the business," Knight says.
Ever since the move to the northern Mishwaka location, the business has grown every year — even though the move was followed by the economic downturn, he says.
Because the jewelry industry is a consumer's market, he says, Van Horne has had to remain extremely competitive.
"Our edge is being a full-service store," Knight says. "I believe that's a big part."
With 90 years in business, going forward, Knight says, he doesn't see much in the business changing. Van Horne will continue to work hard and focus on customers, he says.
"We love helping people and trying to make them happy," Glassburn says, "because jewelry is something that brings a lot of happiness to people. So that's what we want to do."
