Karten's Diamond Guild Leaves Canton, Opens in Legacy Place

After years away from bustling Providence Highway, the Karten family has returned to Dedham.

, owned by Louis Karten, held its grand opening last week to celebrate its move from to in Dedham.

“Legacy Place draws from a wider radius, so it was a logical move for us,” Karten said. “I don’t have to give anyone directions to get here.”

In 1945, Karten’s grandfather opened the first Kartens Jewelers, which had a location for 12 years in the Dedham Mall.

In 1995, the company sold all 20 stores to Zales Corp., and Karten went into the production business as Jewelry Solutions, which he still runs.

But then Karten said he got the “itch” to get back into retail seven years ago and opened a store in Cobb’s Corner, moving once within the center.

Karten began the moving process in April and leased the 1,000 square-foot space, taking the place of Beauty & Main. While the new store is 500 square feet smaller, the store was able to house the same amount of merchandise.

“It’s laid out a bit differently, but we were able to get as much linear case space as [Cobb’s Corner],” said Karten, who has worked in the business for 24 years.

Known as the  in Canton, Karten and Legacy Place management worked to change the name to Diamond Guild and work in the family’s proud history.

“Most of our customers understand the name change, and they know who we are,” Karten said, adding he was pleased with the “catchy” name change.

Nestled on the corner of routes 1 and 128, business is already up three times after just a couple weeks since opening in Dedham on Oct. 29, Karten said.

“The nice thing is we can pull from a wider area,” Karten said. “Overall, I think it was a really good change to move to Legacy Place.”