Neve's Floors To Go Furniture and Mattress Gallery

Originally constructed as a Masonic lodge in 1902, what is today Neve’s Floors to Go Furniture and Mattress Gallery has been a colorful and storied part of Fifth Avenue for most of Antigo’s history. Although the Freemasons of Antigo Lodge No.231 owned the building until 1963, the ground floor was utilized by many different businesses, from a funeral home, to a bank, to a furniture store. Masonic symbols can still be seen on the peak of the structure.

The Freemasons have been with Antigo since its inception. Antigo Lodge No.231 was chartered on September 15, 1885, originally meeting in the room above a local storefront. By 1902, they organized to build a three-story brick building which is today Neve’s furniture store. The second floor was used as a dining hall and parlor and the third floor was for official lodge business, while the ground floor was rented out to various enterprises.

One of the first of these renters was the Antigo/City Gas Company office, and others would eventually include a grocery business run by Al Connor as well as People’s Bank. In 1947, Charles Soman opened a furniture store here and soon expanded to the entire first floor; in 1964 the entire building was sold to Soman Home Furnishings Co.

Soman’s furniture store also doubled as a funeral home, which was not unusual for the period, as evidenced by the fact that the building across the street also housed a different combination “furniture-funeral” business (McCandless & Zobel Furniture); the skills that came in handy crafting tables and chairs were equally useful in making caskets.

In 1969, the tall front windows of the building were replaced with a gray stucco facade.

In 1978, Soman’s furniture store was bought out by two of its employees, James Horton and Gerald Rhia, renaming the business to H&R Furniture & Carpentry. The business finally came under its current ownership in 2002, when it was bought out by the Neve family.

Bidwell, Phyllis. “H&R Furniture, Location Have Rich History.” Antigo Daily Journal. March 7, 1994, Express PrimeTimes edition.

Poss, Robert J. “Masonic Bodies in Langlade County,” June 15, 1978. Langlade County Historical Society Archives.