Duluth natives Jane Wilson and Annette Summerour have known each other most of their lives, and from second grade on, they've been friends. Adding husbands, children and grandchildren to the mix, they've stayed close.

So it only made sense that the two of them — "Annette's the pretty one," says Jane — would eventually end up in business together. With three other women, they own and manage the Payne Corley House, a Duluth setting for special events. But they wanted something else to do.

REBECCA McCARTHY/AJC (ENLARGE)

Jane Wilson (left) and Annette Summerour are Church Ladies, a high end furniture consignment shop in Duluth.

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"And we wanted something that would bring people to downtown Duluth," says Summerour, 59. "We've been concerned about the development of downtown."

Over the weekend, the two opened Church Ladies, a high-end furniture consignment shop in the stone building that housed City Hall and, before that, Duluth First Baptist.

It's the same building in which Summerour married her husband and high school sweetheart, Charles, "years and years ago," she says. Both Charles Summerour and David Wilson, Jane's husband, are involved in Church Ladies.

There are two other consignment shops in Duluth, Accessorize Again and Sensibly Chic, "so we hope we can be the third jewel in the crown," says Wilson, 60. And there's another coming, E Consignment/Hair Artistry Shops.

Next door on West Lawrenceville is a massive building that served as a warehouse for Parson's, a Duluth-based department store with 14 different locations. Wallace Reid Portraiture moved into the facility in April, "and we're happy to be downtown," says Beth Moody, Reid's mother.

According to Elizabeth Rudin, Duluth's downtown manager, the city plans to redevelop the block of West Lawrenceville Street where Church Ladies is opening. Theirs is the only building that won't be leveled.

Wilson and Summerour have a lease that goes month to month, "so we really don't know how long we'll be here," Wilson says. "We hope long enough to develop a devoted following."

The two friends are accepting gently used furniture and furnishings. They split the proceeds 50-50 with the sellers and keep merchandise for 90 days, gradually reducing the price at 30-day increments. Couches, tables, lamps, chairs, dining-room sets, rocking chairs and just about anything else you might need to furnish a home are housed in what was once the sanctuary.

There's also a display of Georgia stepping stones, concrete models of the state, complete with a peach. And there are plants and planters.

"There are 25,000 cars that pass by everyday," said Wilson. "And that can be a good thing. People have called us while they've been stuck in traffic."