Burkart, Hanson open auction service in Seatonville

SEATONVILLE — A Catholic church in Seatonville that closed for a few years is getting a new lease on life.

Randy Burkart and John Hansen started Burkart and Hansen Auction Service LLC in October 2012 in the former St. Gertrude’s Catholic Church and an adjacent building where church-related activities were held in Seatonville.

“We have auctions here, and we take consignments,” said Hansen. “We also do on-site estate sales.

“We sell antiques, primitives, collections and household items,” he added. “We average two sales a month.”

Burkart has been a licensed auctioneer for four years, while Hansen is studying to also become a licensed auctioneer.

“We have a nice building here, and we want to present the items here in a nice way for the sellers,” he added. “We haul items here before cleaning and presenting them.”

In the future, the men want to also use the building for events like auction fundraisers for community groups.

“We store items in the church and rotate them here to the hall where we have the sales,” he said.

The men have also obtained historic pictures of Seatonville area people who built the church on the walls of the auction house. The men have been searching to get names of the people shown in these pictures to identify them.

“People appreciate we have not let the buildings run down after the church was closed two to three years ago,” said Hansen.

The first church was built on the grounds in the early 1900s. A new church was constructed in 1963 with the hall being built in the 1950s where the auctions are currently held.

Burkart and Hansen Auction Service is located at 711 N. Railroad St. in Seatonville. Burkart can be reached at 815-488-0069; Hansen’s number is 815-930-3955.

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