The new owners of the Missouri Boulevard Antique Mall are working to bring an old Jefferson City favorite into the modern marketplace while maintaining its vintage charm.
Cheri and Scott Willett had been vendors at the 1415 Missouri Blvd. antique shop for about nine years when they learned in mid-January that its previous owner planned to close it.
"We knew that it was a solid fixture in the town and thought it would be a good opportunity for us," Cheri Willett said.
They're no retail rookies. The Willetts owned The Marketplace gift store on Truman Boulevard in the early 2000s, and since then, they've operated the Missouri Made online gift basket company - offering many of the same items they've sold at the antique mall.
The Willetts reopened the store as Missouri Boulevard Antique Mall & Dogwood Gift Company last week after giving it new life with fresh paint and a fresh approach.
"The name 'antique mall' doesn't necessarily define what is in here anymore. We have new stuff, we have food products, we have new decor, we have repurposed items, we have upcycled things, as well as the antiques and the vintage items," Willett said. "It's really kind of a cool marriage of the antiques and vintage with something new, and I think that's what the market is looking for right now."
Regular customers can still expect to find collectibles and sought-after antiques - such as glassware, books and vinyl records - but they can also enjoy new vendors' creative takes on updating old items for new uses.
"I have one lady who took an old, beat-up mailbox, and she turned it sideways and made a floral arrangement out of it," Willett said. "It's so neat to see these people's creativity. It's so neat to see how people see an object that other people may thing is trash."
Many of the antique mall's vendors stayed on from the previous ownership, and Willett said she's renting out a booth to someone new almost every day.
"Our main objective here is to provide a place where people can be in business on their own without having all of that overhead and upfront cost that you'd have if you had your own brick-and-mortar store," she said.
The building itself has taken on its own second life. Once a furniture store, it's been an antique store for more than 20 years. The Willetts have been outfitting it for its latest incarnation with cosmetic updates soon to include new windows and a new front door.
"The customers are noticing that it's cleaner, it's brighter, it's new, it's fresh," Willett said. "We've had a great response so far."
The new Missouri Boulevard Antique Mall & Dogwood Gift Company remains open seven days a week with slightly different operating hours - 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturdays and noon-4 p.m. Sundays.
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