If you are ever downtown go to Pete’s Antiques you will not be disappointed. It is a little hole in the wall place on Halsted Street. The store was founded in 1785 by the Stevenson family. Who initially came from Devon, England.

The founder James Stevenson was was a silversmith who came to the colonies to start a new life. Even to this day you can find some premium colonial silver at a good price.

When you walk in the front door you will find curio cabinets filled with pipes, snuff boxes, and other tobacco products. They even have powder horns dating back to the Revolutionary War.

The store also holds other antique items such as clothing articles, trunks and along the back wall is a special climate controlled cabinet that holds antique documents, it is even said there is a first draft copy of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense.

But beware, there are claims of more sinister items also present in the store. If asked for the items directly the owner, John Stevenson, can take you to a smaller private room and show you actual human scalps from the French and Indian War. They are said to hold the energy of the deceased. But one item in particular is very disturbing, it was obtained by one of the family members who made a trip back to England a century later. It is a small sharp object about 6 inches in length with a wooden handle, the tip has a large brown rust looking stain on the edge. It is said to have belonged to a peddler, whom the authorities have called “Jack” as in “Jack the ripper” fame.

It is this knife that requires special care for it is said it can move from one place to another. Sometimes, it can be sitting on the counter the night before and then the next morning when the store is closed and the first shift arrives for the day…the knife is sticking in a wooden post in the wall like it was thrown. No one has taken claim of ownership of this feat, only that it known to appear this way on the third Thursday of every month.