Since its opening nearly 125 years ago, Markelz Business Interiors has undergone many transformations. Opened in 1884 as the Book Shop, the store in the heart of downtown Joliet sold and carried texts for local schools as well as books and office supplies. In its first location on Chicago Street, it was a thread in the fabric of the city’s heyday, amidst such memorable pieces of area history as the Rialto Square Theatre, The Hobbs Hotel and Union Station.

Purchased by A. J. Markelz in 1926, the Book Shop made a decision become an A.B. Dick dealer in 1928. A.B. Dick, itself a historic Chicago area company, produced the first mimeograph machines with the help of Thomas Edison, known as the Edison-Dick mimeograph. Since everything for business was handwritten, the invention was a state-of-the-art necessity, and subsequent products were actually featured at the 1939 World’s Fair. The Book Shop was one of the first retailers in Joliet to sell the machines.

In 1958, the store began selling Steelcase products, metal office furniture, manufactured in Michigan. This heralded the beginning of the company’s move away from supplies and toward business interiors.

“Every one of our office supply customers also needed furniture so it was a natural progression to add office furniture to the product offering,” said Janet Markelz, president and third generation owner of the company.

Growing larger and needing greater storage, the Book Shop moved from first location at 315 Chicago Street to 20 E. Cass Street, and then again to 115 Lafayette Street, all downtown locations.

The store changed its name to Markelz Office Products in 1969. By the 1970s, the newly renamed company was advertising primarily its office furniture and large equipment, and a new facility outside the downtown area on McDonaugh Street was chosen to house the line of larger products.

“We were here before most anybody else had moved to the West Side,” Markelz said. “It was the vision of Jim Markelz that chose this great piece of real estate. Today, the location is easily accessible to both I-55 and I-80 making it convenient for both our customers and our suppliers, and we have had enough property to expand several times over the years.”

Markelz and her brother Greg purchased the company from their father Jim in 1995. The owners split the business, creating Markelz Office Products, owned by Greg, and Markelz Business Interiors owned by Janet.

And while the names have changed and the mimeograph machine has fallen out of use, it is still the constant updates of current technology that have signaled the greatest change in the way the company does business.

“The most obvious change to our business has been the addition of the computer,” said Markelz. “Where before all accounting, ordering and space planning layouts were done by hand, today they are all done on the computer.”

But other than that, business remains very much the same as it was generation before, Markelz said.

“If you read the employee training manual from the 1950s there aren't more than 10 words that you would have to change to modernize the document,” she said. “We have been doing what we do for a very long time. All the people who came before me did an outstanding job and I have had the benefit of having been mentored by them and having those business values passed on.”