New Star Jewelers in Joliet will remain, but Haakes are retiring

JOLIET – Newstar Jewelers has been around since 1897 – and still will be around after a “Going Out of Business” sale is done.

The “Going Out of Business” sale, now underway, was started before longtime employee and jeweler Theresa Murphy decided to buy the store and keep it going.

She’s not buying the jewelry, however, so the sale goes on.

It has been an emotional experience, said Ellen Haake, who has owned Newstar with her husband, Dan, since 1985.

“It’s been like a living eulogy,” said Ellen, grateful for the experience of longtime customers coming in and sharing their appreciation for the store. “People have been crying and hugging. That’s been real rewarding – sad, but rewarding.”

Haake said she and Dan need to sell the jewelry to provide for their retirement.

Dan, who has a degenerative eye disease, is losing his ability to examine diamonds and do some of the other work in the trade. Even recognizing customers can be difficult, he said.

“It kind of puts me in a precarious position,” Dan said. “People have been doing business with us for 30-some years, and when they come in, I can’t tell who it is.”

What he will miss most about the business is “the contact with the customers,” Dan said.

Newstar Jewelers started as Berkovitz Brothers, a dry-goods store on Collins Street. By the 1920s, it was the A. Berkovitz Department Store.

Ellen is related to the Berkovitz family, who later changed their name to Berk, by a previous marriage. So, the change in owners this time will mark the last connection to the Berkovitz origin.

But it’s still staying in the family, in a way.

Murphy has been working at the store for about as long as the Haakes have owned it, having started in 1988.

“I was fresh out of school,” she said. “I went to Gem City College [in Quincy] for jewelry and came here.”

Over the years, Murphy, too, has met many of the customers, talking with them about jewelry as she did work for them.

“There are a lot of customers that are friends. They’re not just customers,” she said.

Murphy initially will run the store for jewelry repair and service while buying inventory. The plan is to have jewelry back in the counters and for sale by Valentine’s Day.

She also will keep the furrier part of the store, although Murphy no longer will sell furs. She will clean, repair and store them.

Newstar also has a Naperville store on Route 59, which will close.

Ellen, who worked in Newstar in the 1960s when it was on Chicago Street downtown – long before she was an owner – is very familiar with the store’s history.

At one time, it was one of five family-owned jewelry stores all in the same downtown business district near the Rialto Theatre, she said. The store moved to the current location, at 2417 W. Jefferson St., in the 1970s.

During the Haakes’ last weeks of ownership, they regularly have been reminded of what the business has meant to people.

Customers over the years have brought in several of the wall clocks with the store logo that Newstar used to give away in the 1960s. The other day, a man came in asking about them.

“He asked, Do you have one of those clocks?’ which we did,” Ellen said. “He said, ‘It’s part of my memories.’”

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NEWSTAR JEWELERS

Origins: Store opened in 1897 as Berkovitz dry-goods store on Collins Street

Downtown: Store became Newstar Jewelers while located on Chicago Street downtown.

Jefferson Street: Newstar moved to current location in the early 1970s.

Dan and Ellen Haake: Bought Newstar in 1985.

Today: Newstar is having a “Going Out of Business” sale as the Haakes sell the jewelry for their retirement.

January: Longtime Newstar jeweler Theresa Murphy is buying the store and will continue to run it as Newstar Jewelers.