When Mike Wollschlager and his father, Glen, walked down the street to the Lansing Creamery auction last October, they had no intention of buying it.

They went for the show.

“We just wanted to see who bought it,” Glen said.

Mike tried previously to purchase it in 1993, but the owner was not ready to sell.

The father and son got caught up in the excitement that autumn day in 2008, and ended up bidding. They won the auction, making the historic creamery their own for $7,500.

Now they are working to turn it into a second home for Mike and his wife, Kara.

The creamery, which closed in 1952, had been in the possession of Lake City resident Jack Tedrow, now deceased, a former Austin junior high and middle school band director.

For 43 years, Tedrow, a World War II veteran, had used it to store antique car parts and other odds and ends. He finally put it up for live auction to get away from the upkeep.

The Lansing Co-Operative Creamery — maker of milk, butter, cream and also seller of an ever popular orange drink — was built in 1906, the locals say, at least the few who remember it. Published records from the Lansing Post Office state the business was actually founded with $2,500 in 1894.

The building sits on a half-acre with a small creek running through the back of the lot. The structure is crafted of white Chaska brick, a cream colored brick manufactured in Chaska, Minn. from the clay of the Minnesota River valley.

The creamery, having been owned by several companies over the years, stopped functioning as a creamery in 1952. When Tedrow bought it in 1965, the property was bank-owned.

The Wollschlagers bid on the creamery as its thick brick walls and tile ceiling was crumbling.

The windows were boarded up. There were large holes in the walls. Inside, boxes of Tedrow’s belongings and dust and dirt chest-high awaited them.

When they cleaned out the building, they hauled three Dumpsters out.

Mike said he found three dead raccoons, four cats and three opossums — all in the old cooler.

One year later, the old creamery is beginning to look like a home.

The father and son have been renovating it themselves.

The have replaced the glass in all of the windows, fixed up the foundation, put up staircases, de-tiled the ceiling, patched up walls, put doors in, installed a fire pit with a brick seating area and another separate brick patio. They are currently installing electricity.

The father and son are enjoying fixing it up bit by bit and are unsure of when they hope to complete it.

“We are doing it all ourselves,” said Glen, who works part-time and walks over to the creamery to work there every day at noon.

“There is still a lot to do. Some days we monkey around. Sometimes we do a lot of stuff. And, sometimes we just sweep and clean,” Glen said.

Mike has a full-time job and is also a Lansing historian. He grew up in Lansing and lives one-half block away from the creamery.

He compiled and wrote a history of Lansing Township from 1854-1934. He served as president of the Mower County Historical Society in 1998 and 1999, and served on the board for seven years.

“I walk over there every day to work on it,” he said. His passion for history is in tune with his choice to keep the old-fashioned style of the creamery in tact.

A raised seating area he built in the main room has vintage wood flooring taken from the old school. He also has old bank doors from Lansing’s First National Bank to install. Photos of the creamery in its heyday guide Mike’s design decisions.

Mike said he hopes to have the furnace ready and finish putting up a tin ceiling — with panels purchased from another old home — by Christmas so that he can invite his family over.