Normally at this time of year we plan our Fall vacation to Florida. The trip is usually by road and allows Wifey to shop for antiques as we travel. Florida had never proved to be fertile ground for purchasing items for her type of customer, but last visit we did locate some shops of interest in the St. Pete area.
This years plans fell apart at the last minute, but with the time off from my real job, (if you can call industrial sales a real job), we decided to take the time and do some antique and collectible hunting in an area beyond the distance we consider manageable on a “day trip”.
Several routes were laid out with the idea of visiting antique malls and shops we were familiar with from past excursions into Indiana and Kentucky. Many times we call ahead or write to assure ourselves of the open hours and to ask about any new shops in the area. I always over-engineer the trip before we leave, setting the exact time to be at each shop, how long would be allowed at each location and where to stay at night. (It never works out)
But alas, with short notice and no set direction, we loaded the van with maps, a coin to flip, cell phone, laptop, soda cooler, snacks, packing boxes, bungee cords and, oh yes, a change of clothes and deodorant.
I did pull up one of my favorite web sites for antique store locations and clicked on the states we expected to visit, printing the pages out (33 pages in IL alone.)
Heading South and West to avoid the road construction in and around Chicago, we arrived in Sterling IL, where we found our first mall, American Heritage Antique Center. At first glance more of a decorating place but with a little digging we found some nice items like advertising wood boxes and advertising playing cards.
A friendly place, we put this one on our ‘C’ list for places to stop when in route. The store manager asked our destination (we had none) and offered suggestions, then directed us to the next stop.
K&T Antiques is a small shop where the owner, Karen Holland, shows glass, dolls, lamps, jewelry and collectibles, located in an old auto service station in Sterling. She is a certified Appraiser and really knew her stuff. Again our hostess directed us on our way.
We followed the instruction from each store to the next, with the intention of heading into Iowa and then down to Missouri. It was part of our plan devised while first driving out of Wisconsin. Now heading South on IL 40 out of Sterling we found the our next stop, Color of Country Antiques, in an older shopping strip center in Rock Falls. We had an informative chat with the manager who explained his interests in antiques and mentioned how new the store was (less than a year old.). Nicely laid out and inviting, our purchases included some agriculture advertising items from the area
View Larger Map“>We followed his suggestion to continue South on IL 40 to Manlius, IL and J&S Antiques just North of I-80. Here we had a fabulous antiquing experience. The owner, Sandy, and her staff were informative, friendly and fun. Giving us their attention when we needed case after case opened for inspection of cufflinks, lamp finials, antique door knobs and other smalls. Her personal collection of pedal cars and Mobo riding bronco toys decorate the store, but sorry they are not for sale, unless you come up with the amount Wifey jokingly suggested she would pay. If they had accepted her offer, she’d have to ‘pedal’ a lot more than those little cars.
Definitely on our ‘A’ list. Worth a return trip. Fair prices, great variety of items for any collector, well staffed, clean, well displayed and readable price tags.
Sandy suggested Sherwood Antiques in Princeton, IL which was open till 9pm, located east of IL-40 off I-80. Here we found another mall filled with wonderful vintage items. With late hours we were able to shop to our heart’s content. We found a good assortment of advertising items here. Sherwood is on our ‘A’ list.
Sandy from J&S also suggested continuing on to Peoria, IL. So the next day we headed to the Illinois Antique Center on the waterfront in Peoria. Its downtown location is close to restaurants and other fine shopping. But our only interest was in the antiques offered by the many dealers located in this well-run store.
As we had found at other ‘A’ list places, the staff was most helpful in quickly opening display cases, carrying large items up to the check out area and pointing out special discounts dealers were offering. The booths were clean, items displayed in an uncluttered manner and prices easily read. We purchased many antique door knob sets, watch fobs, advertising signs and pins.
Our hostess here directed us to East Peoria, IL and the Pleasant Hill Antique Mall. She provided a hand drawn map to guide us. (Do the Letters GPS come to mind?)
The Mall is located in a former school house. It, too, was open late which gave us lots of time to browse the 30,000 square foot building divided into sections with a restaurant at the center. While all manner of goods were offered, we purchased a bunch of cufflinks and tie bars, and some spatterware items (ask Wifey, I don’t know spatterware from spongeware). Pleasant Hill would rate a ‘B’, good goods, and we will add this stop for a return visit.
Surprising were the prices on Caterpillar Corp. advertising, employee pins, etc, priced well above what we had expected, given the abundance of these pieces we saw on this trip. We passed many of their huge factories located along our routes.
The most disappointing thing one finds in any “antique” store is merchandise that is cheap and newer or a mall filled with reproductions that are not identified as such. Places that let the dealers run their booths like storage sheds, goods piled in, so one cannot walk in to see what’s there. Some stores we found on this trip are left out of this discussion, when a quick visit suggests the operator lacks control of the type, age of goods sold or where prices were well above normal.
In a future article we will discuss the continuation of the trip as we enter into Indiana and visit some new and exciting stores.
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