Featured Edmontonian: Helen Fester

By Lorraine Poulsen

The Highlands, located in northeast Edmonton and just blocks from the North Saskatchewan river valley, can be said to have had a golden start.

The subdivision was developed by the real estate entrepreneur group Magrath, Holgate and Co. It was that company which offered $50 in gold to the person who could come up with the winning name for the area.

The offer was made in 1910 and by 1911, a total of 28 residential building permits were taken out by Margrath, Holgate and Co. for the Highlands district.

Today the area boasts a unique commercial strip in the heart of the residential district. Minutes away from the city’s centre, the one-of-a-kind businesses offer a unique shopping and eating experience.

Among the shops on 112 Avenue is the famed French restaurant LaBoheme which was built as a luxury apartment block in 1912. The restaurant opened in 1982. The street is also home to a wool shop (Wool Revival), Catfish Coffee and Culina Highlands, a unique neighbourhood cafe, to name just a few.

And, of course, there is Chickies.

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If you have a few free hours and you are wondering how to spend them, do yourself a favour and go to 112 Avenue and 65 Street and visit with Helen at Chickies. The shop is opened Wednesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and a visit to this spot will just make you feel good.

Being part of the antique selling world is a “glorious” place to be according to Helen Fester, the owner of one of the city’s most unique antique stores.

And, if Chickies compelling atmosphere does not totally captivate and entice you, the rippling laughter of the former Army and Navy sales girl will surely make you want to step inside and have a closer look.

Helen is a tiny slip of a woman and the owner of what can only be described as a most contagious laugh. She is really more than just the proprietor of Chickies, she is an artist who uses the two buildings located at 11204 – 65 Street as her personal canvas.

Wearing the latest designer eye glasses and dressed in complete complementary fashion attire, she moves through the two-building shop totally in tune with her surroundings.

The buildings house a wide variety of armoires, braided rugs, delicate tea services, inviting armchairs, writing desks, elegant linens, paintings and endless hidden treasurers of every description. And the fun doesn’t end there – the artful garden between the two buildings is home to an array of outdoor antiques. Helen uses these one-of-a-kind French farm antiques to create a colourful montage of warmth and fun.

Located across the street from the famed LaBoheme restaurant, Chickies has been part of the Highlands commercial section since 1992.

The main building originally was the home of Johnny’s Confectionary and the second, smaller structure was home to Johnny Glasgow’s family. Built in 1938, it turned from Johnny’s to the Cozy Corner (a cafe) in 1943 and when that business ended the structures sat empty for an unknown period of time.

When Helen and her husband Gale bought the property they reworked the interior of the structures but kept the original exterior charm both buildings offered.

And why the name Chickies?

“Well, funny that you should ask,” Helen laughs.

“When I was 15, I wanted a job at the north side Army and Navy. The hiring age at the time was 16. I wanted the job so bad that I followed the owner, Doc Goldsmith, from one end of that long store to the other, talking all the way, telling him that if he hired me now, at age 15, I would be well trained by the time I was 16. And, I told him as we both walked, that I would work all the Catholic holidays and be the best employee he had. I just kept talking, naming any other reason I could think of to convince him to hire me.

“When we reached the end of that walk, I was not at all sure I had convinced him. And then, just like that, he turned to me and said, ‘ Okay Chickie, you come in tomorrow.’

“So that was it – Chickies describes things well,” she explains through rolls of laughter.

Helen worked at the Army and Navy all through high school and continued in a part time position after she moved on to a job at the Royal Alex Hospital.

“Today I know it was the perfect experience. I was so young and without even realizing it, I was exposed to all aspects of the retail world and just absorbed so much without knowing it,” she said.

Helen is not sure what her weekly wage as a sales girl amounted to but what she does remember is that her employee punch card number was 62. And she also remembers that Goldsmith proved to be a fair, honest, fun man to work for.

(When she recently found a soap box derby car in her travels through the United States bearing the number ’62’, Helen knew she had to bring the derby car back to Chickies.)

“It was so me – that number 62 was so right and maybe considering the fact that I am a bit racy…,” she says followed, yet again, by that rolling laugh.

“Really, Mr. Goldsmith treated us (the employees) so well. Chocolates at Christmas and the like – just wonderful,” she remembers.

It is so obvious that she has never forgotten those early days of selling nor has she lost her love of bantering with customers. Helen knows and loves the Chickies merchandise and has a story to tell about each item. The prices are more than fair and she really is pleased when a customer is “excited” about a purchase.

“Life is short. So if something just jumps out at you, take it home.”

That philosophy is more than a sales pitch… Helen truly is happy when an item in her shop captures the complete attention of a buyer.

Chickies’ merchandise comes from all over the world. Helen started to travel extensively when she accepted a position with Wardair as a sales person. She was with the airline for about 15 years and her work took her to numerous international locations. During her travels Helen visited the far corners of foreign cities searching out unique items to bring home for family and friends.

“I would buy interesting linens, clothing from Paris, maybe a doll from England -wondrous pieces – things I could easily get home in my suitcase.

“Once, a girl friend I worked with at Wardair and I were in Hong Kong. We had to take separate cabs to the airport in order to get all our purchases on the plane and home.”

Much like the young girl learning all about sales through osmosis, her shopping travels helped her set up a web of contacts that would prove very beneficial when she decided to set up her own shop.

Today Helen and her husband travel the world from sight seeing and buying unique items to bring back to Chickies.

“I love history but if I can’t buy something, life gets boring,” she says as she laughs heartily at her own statement.

Helen not only loves her work and her shop, she loves to share her joy of living with anyone who enters her world.

“It is nice to see new people enjoy the shop and I am so grateful to those repeat customers that have been returning since I first opened the doors.”

Helen has one daughter, Ashley Fester, a film producer who lives and works in Vancouver.