Milestones Icon: Anspach’s Jewelry

Afamily-owned business that spans four generations, Anspach’s Jewelry arguably has the best retail location in the city of Lafayette at the corner of Simpson Street and South Public Road.

Glen Anspach, armed with a degree from Elgin Watch College, opened his jewelry store in 1955 in a 300-square-foot space at 109 S. Public Road. It also doubled as home for Glen and his wife, Dee, with living quarters in the back.

Glen and Dee had moved to Colorado from Bozeman, Montana and were warmly greeting by Lafayette locals who helped them with a business site, a home, furniture, food, and even took up a collection to help finance the business.

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Partnered with Joe Soltes, the three quickly established a reputation as a place where homey extras like coffee and conversation went right along with watch repair, their motto: “Our sincerity is your security.”

Glen and Dee gave back to the community by volunteering. They were inducted into the Boulder County Business Hall of Fame in 2005.

In 1967, Anspach’s moved a few blocks north to its present location, 101 S. Public Road, then, as the years went on, the store expanded its square footage, contracted and expanded again in the same building.

“I like to say we’ve moved four times, three were in the same building,´ said Glen’s son, Graig Anspach, who is the current owner/operator.

Graig took over the store at age 24. He was working as an environmental consultant on Indian reservations in North Dakota and South Dakota in 1983 when his father died suddenly, and he moved back home to help with the family business.

When growing up in Lafayette, the last thing he’d wanted to do was settle back there, still, “As I reflected on my life it became clear to me how special it is to have a community of friends.”

Without his father’s education, he had to learn everything on the job. Peers in the industry proved invaluable. Stumped by a customer’s watch or jewelry repair, he tapped Jack Stokes, a stone setter for Crowder Jeweler and Harold Petterson of Gold by Design in Boulder for help.

At Anspach’s Jewelry, family and community are intertwined. Graig’s two sisters, worked in the store. Mother, Dee, worked there 50 years before retiring.

The third Anspach generation, Ty Kuppinger, started at Anspach’s Jewelry in 1997 after moving from eastern Oregon and training at the Revere Jewelry Academy in San Francisco.

Today, Kuppinger’s daughter, Madison, the fourth generation, does odd jobs at Anspach’s Jewelry.

Kuppinger and Anspach stay in touch with the community with a mentor program that teaches children at Pioneer Elementary School about jewelry.

Today Kuppinger and Graig Anspach are trying to keep their own lines, Tinde and Sasheen, in stock.