'Carol' movie brings Oskamp Nolting back to life

The old Oskamp Nolting department store Downtown comes back to life today as Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara film scenes for their "Carol" feature film.

The department store at 26 W. Seventh St. closed on Christmas Eve 1980. The six-story building, built in 1913, has housed the family-owned Mill End Draperies since 1987.

Movie set designers transformed the second floor into the toy department of Frankenberg's department store, says Susan Sumner, sister of Mill End president and manager Greg Sumner.

In the movie, Therese Belivet (Mara) works in the toy department of the New York store in 1952, where she meets a customer (Blanchett) Christmas shopping for a doll.

Filmmakers are using large glass display cases left behind by the Oskamp Nolting Distributing Co., founded in 1881, which sold diamonds, watches, silver, toys, housewares and sporting goods.

"It's sort of the last hurrah for the department store," she said.

The Enquirer reported in October that Columbus-based Peak Property Group plans to convert the 38,000-square-foot Oskamp Nolting structure and two other Seventh Street buildings into 75 apartments.

The old Shillito's store a block away was used for Frankenberg's exteriors Monday.

Mill End Draperies' vacant second floor was being dressed for Christmas with large sleighs, Christmas trees, wreathes and huge stuffed animals. Dolls, sleds and an operating electric train are on display in the toy department.

One of the movie staffers "was shopping for material, saw our building, and decided it would be a fabulous space to shoot the movie. They've been painting there for about a month," she said.

Mill End Draperies has sold designer fabrics and custom-made window treatments since 1939. Paul Sumner bought the business in 1964. Greg took over the business after his father's death in 2009.

Blanchett stars as Carol Aird, a married woman heading for divorce, who is pursued by Belivet (Mara), a younger store clerk. Todd Haynes is directing from a script adapted from "The Price of Salt," a 1952 novel by Patricia Highsmith.

Filming started March 12 in Eden Park. The entire movie will be shot here through April.