Putnam Connecticut Antiques

Host: In another part of the quiet corner, a mill town on the skids and an entrepreneur’s idea, serene depth in this meeting in time that brought new life to the view in the real cut. Now, the antique capital of New England.

Jerry Cohen: The Antiques Marketplace was opened in 1991. I bought the building in 1990. I had moved here from Oakland, California where I had an antique store. And we had just sold a building there and I was looking for a building for my business here. This building was available and I couldn’t believe how inexpensive it was and I said this is the place to open up. Its five miles from my home, it’s a beautiful antique building built in 1880. I purchased the building; we turned it into an antique mall.

We have above 300 dealer spaces here and approximately rented by about 200 dealers. Many of them have two or three or four spaces. So it’s a big store with a lot of dealers and a great, great deal of variety. Because we’re in a rural part of Connecticut, the brands don’t have to be high.

So dealers who are not necessarily selling things grew thousands, even maybe hundreds of dollars are able to afford a space here. We sell a lot of 50-cent postcards, dollar and $3.00 pieces of glasses then most of the things we sell are about $20.00 items that people decorate their homes with. And occasionally somebody comes in and buys like a five thousand dollars Stickley bookcase from my booth or something expensive from one of the higher end dealers that setup in the store.

If I have seen most to the people who come in are people who are on a day trip, who are just out to enjoy themselves know that there’s a fun place to come. And that they can spend a dollar or $10.00 or a hundred or a thousand dollars. And that it’s all here and available and because we have so many dealers who exhibit, they can see everything from sweet to nuts. They can see 18th century, 19th century, and 20th century. They can see glass, where they can see coins, sports collectibles. Just about anything that might be out there we’ll show up in the store.