By james art MADISON — Thirty-one years of service in the National Guard brought Chris Shelstad to Wisconsin, Washington, Georgia, Kansas, Germany and finally Texas, where Shelstad and her husband of 10 years retired in 2013.
His unexpected death in 2018 prompted her to consider returning to Minnesota. Maybe a college town. Maybe the Twin Cities. Or maybe the little community she’d left in the rearview mirror after graduating high school in 1981.
“If I’m going to go home, I might as well come all the way home,” Shelstad said of his decision.
She moved to Madison in 2020 and bought the house she always wanted with the intention of “being that crazy old lady in that big old house.”
“She wasn’t going to do anything. I’m not volunteering for anything. I’m not going to join anything,” said her sister, Lisa Shelstad Renglien, as she laughed at the memory.
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Instead of doing nothing, Shelstad purchased a vacant 15,000-square-foot building on the southern edge of Madison’s commercial district. Since then, she has maintained a breakneck pace of activity as the Roadrunner of cartoon fame. Once a combination hardware and auto store, and long before that a lumber yard, Shelstad transformed the building and opened it as Madison Mercantile in early 2022.
“It’s not just a building,” said Scott Marquardt, executive director of the Southwest Initiative Foundation of Mercantile. “This is how real estate can drive community and belonging.”
First of all, Shelstad transformed this empty store into a lively gathering place where the main message is “everyone is welcome”.
Many are drawn inside by the aromas of freshly brewed coffee and treats. The Mercantile has a coffee shop with plenty of space to visit or rest; a stage for music and other live performances; and a cooler stocked with the craft beers of two hometown guys who opened their own breweries elsewhere.
The Mercantile is also a community center and business incubator. There is a “Men’s Shed”, fully equipped with tools, where carpenters are invited to work and create.
There is a sewing room where local sewing and quilting groups enjoy their craft and their company.
Another room and area is set aside with a pool table. Youth and adults are always welcome to play.
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There is an art gallery housing the works of various featured local artists and another room set aside to display the works of the late Franz Richter, a local artist.
There is also a fitness center with exercise equipment and space for dance and other classes.
A few steps from freshly brewed coffee, there are also tenants with their own offices.
There is a lot of space devoted to promoting local foods. The Mercantile serves as a local food hub with weekly deliveries of local produce and a selection of local meats.
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Having such a large space for so many different things is essential to what the Mercantile is, but what makes it “a million times more special” is what happens inside, Marquardt said. Arts and civic organizations—and many groups of friends—meet here to work on projects ranging from helping newcomers and immigrants feel welcome in the community to planning the community’s summer celebration.
All Shelstad originally planned to do when she purchased the building was to open the cafe and set aside a small space to display the art of a friend who had passed away and bequeathed her his collection.
Shelstad said her plans and goals changed after reading the book Alienated America: Why Some Places Thrive While Others Collapse by Timothy P. Carney. This speaks to the social breakdown we see in many areas and how the bonds of family, church and other institutions important to a sense of community are being stressed across the country.
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With all that space available, Shelstad said she was inspired to make the Mercantile a place to foster a sense of community.
But how? That was for the community to decide, she decided. She hosted an ongoing series of listening sessions to hear what people thought the community needed.
“It was really informed by the community,” Shelstad said of what the Mercantile offers now.
“It’s fun doing this. We just said yes to everything for a year,” she said with a laugh.
Residents got involved right away. Shelstad said one of Madison’s strongest strengths is the ability of residents in the community to work together. “I feel like Madison has always been a city that gets along and succeeds,” she said.
All this makes her very optimistic about the community and its future. Since returning to her hometown, she has watched many others do the same.
Some of those she calls “recoveries” come home to move into the homes their parents or grandparents are leaving because of age or death. Returnees benefit from more affordable housing in a rural community, she said.
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Importantly, she said, many of them also return because of the safety rural life offers and their desire to raise their children in the small-town environment they’ve enjoyed.
She said her greatest hope is to help foster rural revitalization as people return and newcomers arrive to make that home and start new economic ventures in the community.
In the longer term, she hopes to make the nonprofit she founded, the Madison Center for Arts and Innovation, self-sustaining to continue the work. “The goal is to get out of a job,” she said.
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Through it all, she has set aside her own passion for art and creativity. She would one day like to retire to her studio and devote her days to quietly creating art.
Until then, she has one answer for those who ask her why she moves so fast. “Because I’m not 20,” she replied. She recently turned 61 and has so many things she wants to see accomplished.
“She’s always on her way to the next dream and making it happen,” Marquardt said. “She represents the grit, the courage and the passion that people have in our region.”
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