A former Sugar Grove resident is now the owner of not only the largest costume rental company in the United States, but also The Wick Theatre in Boca Raton Florida.

Marilynn A. Wick graduated from Eisenhower High School in 1962, and after her physical education teacher took a one-year sabbatical, she substituted for three years.

She later earned a real estate license in Jamestown, N.Y. and moved around the country until she ended up in Boca Raton in 1972.

Wick said she made the transition to costumes by making five rental Santa Claus costumes while teaching her children to sew. “The following year, I opened a one-room costume shop,” she said.

“In 2005, I bought the largest costume house, Dodger Costumes, which was formerly the Eaves-Brooks Company in Manhattan. It was the oldest in the country, founded in 1863. We moved 15 semi-loads of Broadway costumes to south Florida,” she said.

Wick still has family in the area, and returns to her Sugar Grove farm each summer.

Her company, Costume World, Inc., recently purchased the building that houses the Wick Theatre and Costume Museum. The Wick Theatre is a non-profit professional theatre with non-profit status.

For the past three years, Wick, who is the founder and CEO of Costume World, Inc., leased the building and completely renovated it.

She said that after the Tavern on the Green in New York City closed, she went to the auction and purchased things like the curtains and tablecloths, an amber Bacarat crystal crystal chandelier that once hung in its entryway, moved the materials to Boca Raton, hired William Walden, a five-star chef, recreated the restaurant and renamed it Tavern at The Wick. The Tavern on the Green has since reopened under different management.

Today, people come for her daily tours of the museum, eat at the Tavern and take in a show in the theatre.

She currently owns Costume World stores in Deerfield Beach, Florida, Austin and Dallas, Texas and Pittsburgh.

And got her start in Sugar Grove.