Koehler Warehouse is an Easton Time Capsule

A man’s home may be his castle, but for Easton entrepreneur , his office is more like a museum and, more intriguingly, a time capsule.

Tucked inside a large, nondescript warehouse on S. 11th Street in the West Ward, Koehler’s workplace is an amalgam of architectural features and decorative design elements from eras past (almost all of which he acquired in Easton) that he has brought together to make his working environment a one-of-a-kind showplace of city history.

The word "warehouse" might make you think this building is like something out of the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

"It was, at one time," Koehler said, until a friend of his suggested using it as an office.

A transplant from New York, Koehler came to Easton in 1983 and set up Koehler-Kheel Realty, with he and partner Theodore Kheel purchasing and rehabbing a number of properties that were either vacant or in serious decline.

Among these are included such current gems in the city’s crown as the Northampton National Bank (now ), the VFW (currently home to ) and the Easton Hotel (beautifully restored as The ). Add to that list, now, his 11th Street warehouse, which also boasts four luxury condo units on the upper level.

For Koehler, an interest in collecting objects can be traced back to his childhood years in England, but it wasn’t until he returned to this country as an adult businessman that it became a way of life.

Three decades of rooting through old buildings, attending sheriff’s sales and servicing demolition sites has yielded a treasure trove of period fixtures and other items, all of which he diligently squirrelled away just waiting for the opportunity to bring them together.

From the Art Deco thirties to the more staid fifties and beyond, the office complex of Koehler Kheel Realty is a timeless mixture of eras that exhibits a keen designer’s eye for shaping the disparate elements into a collective and pleasing whole.

Upon entering Koehler’s warehouse space, one is immediately struck by its resemblance to an eccentric and grandiose hotel lobby. Columns define a central path through the vast, open interior, with specific “rooms” and areas delineated on either side.

A variety of ornate chandeliers and period lighting fixtures hang from the ceiling in groupings that further identify the different spaces.

Koehler has furnished his environment with numerous eclectic pieces, from seed cabinets and library tables, most of which were being tossed out, that he refurbished to like-new condition.

In some cases, his own real estate purchases (as in the VFW building), yielded truly rare treasures, like a set of enormous cut glass Art Deco wall sconces (from that building’s movie theater past) which now proudly adorn one wall in Koehler’s compound.

In some instances, the objects acquired have spilled out into the exterior space of the building, so are in plain view of the public. Chief among these is a pair of gigantic neon signs taken from the rooftop perch of the Hotel Easton. Though still in need of repair, these iconic, monolithic pieces have found a new home on the compound’s back porch and as part of an urban garden in the building’s back lot.

Some items are smaller, like some photos he found inside a house on W. Wilkes-Barre Street last month. Much of the home was a shambles -- he pulled out 38,000 pounds of trash -- but hidden in there were little treasures. 

Clearly Koehler has a knack for finding and reusing those cast off items that, more often than not, simply end up in landfills and incinerators.

"I'm a collector," Koehler said. "I hate to see things get thrown away."

And while the successful entrepreneur has no plans to fully retire, he has begun to slow down a bit and take stock of his career.

Perhaps that is one factor in his decision to bring all the elements together from his three decades in the real estate trade into this unique and eccentric compilation.

“Many people have said I am eccentric,” Koehler allows, “so, the décor. Besides, the décor makes me think.”