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Jacek learned English, and though he already knew how to weld, he took classes to become certified in the U.S. They moved back to Gretchen’s home state of Illinois, and six years later they started their family. Jacek immigrated to Canada, Gretchen visited him and they married. Once safely in Austria, he was sent to a refugee camp between Salzburg and Vienna – the same place where Gretchen happened to be working with a mission teaching English, leading Bible studies and assisting refugees who were waiting for entry to the U.S. When he was 20 years old, Jacek escaped Communist Poland by enduring a three-night trek over the mountains from the former Yugoslavia into Austria with just a knapsack on his back. The guys would give him a few pennies, and he would go into his grandma’s store and buy sodas or candies. “He would stoke the fire and keep it going. “He calls it ‘blowing the fire,’” Gretchen says. He loved nothing more than spending time with his grandfather, the village blacksmith. Jacek Peczkowski’s passion for metal work began when he was a boy growing up in Poland. Jacek got his tractor and pulled out a big wagon wheel and chains from a baling machine, and he welded it all together and made a big chandelier out of it. They just had their stuff and threw it in a hole and it filled up with water. “Jacek told me, ‘I got most of that stuff out of the pond when we dredged it out.’ Back in the day, farmers never had garbage pickup. “One of the things I love: you walk in and you look up and there’s a monster chandelier with these blue globes,” Helmeid says. Jacek’s is head and shoulders over others.”Ī perfect example of Jacek’s work hangs inside the gift barn.
“People say, ‘I can buy the same thing at Walmart.’ You can’t buy the same thing at Walmart. “Any time I’m looking for a gift that’s special and nobody else has, I go over to Steel Heart and look around and I usually find something,” Helmeid says. The originality and quality of the pieces made by Steel Heart have long drawn Helmeid and his wife, Ginger, to the business. “The barn was redone, but it’s all original inside – all of the planking and most of the beams are original, with wood pegs and all hand-hewn timbers. “I think it was a good move,” says Bruce Helmeid, of Walworth, Wis. Longtime customers are loving the new space.
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But the accompanying barn – once a stop on the Underground Railroad – is now the pride and joy of the business, and it’s stuffed to the brim with, baskets, planters, trellises, yard art and more, plus the wares of other local artisans. The 3,800-square-foot house is not open to the public, as it’s the Peczkowskis’ residence. Today, the Peczkowskis offer their products – most designed and crafted by 57-year-old Jacek himself – on a property that has as good a story as the one they have been writing together since they met at a refugee camp in Austria nearly 36 years ago. I didn’t see it, but I went along with it. He thought one day this would be a great place to have a business. “He’s a visionary,” Gretchen says of her husband. The couple’s original Steel Heart Inc., retail store in downtown Harvard served the two well since they opened in 1997.īut last December, the Peczkowskis permanently moved Steel Heart north of downtown to the historic barn at The House of Seven Gables, located at 10308 N. and Canada exquisite, handcrafted metal garden and home decor. Jacek and Gretchen Peczkowski have filled their historic barn at the House of Seven Gables with many treasures designed by Jacek.įor nearly a quarter century, Jacek and Gretchen Peczkowski of Harvard have provided patrons across the U.S. Since moving to one of Harvard’s oldest properties, the couple have fully embraced the story of House of Seven Gables.
Jacek and Gretchen Peczkowski love to share their metal artwork and some incredible stories with devoted customers.
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