Cruising Antique Alley
New Hampshire’s road of yesteryear satisfies the touch-and-feel impulse
No image on a digital screen can capture the touch and feel of the patina of age.
Serendipity is the name of the game in the shops of Antique Alley. If you have your heart set on finding a Steiff teddy bear or a Civil War officer’s sword, you could be disappointed. But if you’re open to discovering an item that you didn’t know you couldn’t live without, then this roughly 30-mile stretch of road from Lee to Concord,
N.H., is, at least figuratively speaking, right up your alley.
We hadn’t visited these dozen-plus antiques stores for a while, and worried that brick-and-mortar shops might be feeling the pinch from the point-and-click instant gratification of online marketplaces. So we were pleasantly surprised that most shopkeepers reported that business is actually pretty good. Apparently there are still plenty of collectors and decorators who like to get their hands on an object before they commit to a purchase. No image on a digital screen can capture the touch and feel of the patina of age.
The dealers of Antique Alley are located on or along Route 4, a mostly two-lane blacktop highway that changes names from town to town. Chartered in 1796 to link Portsmouth to Concord, the road is also known as First New Hampshire Turnpike. You’ll need to be vigilant for the occasional barn or yard sale, but the main dealers are easy to spot. Starting on the east end, R.S. Butler’s Trading Company (102 First New Hampshire Turnpike, Northwood, N.H.; 603-942-8210; rsbutlerstradingco.com) fills two big pink barns.
Colleen Pingree opened the shop 30 years ago with her mother, and now operates it with her husband, Don. “We took it in our own funky direction,” she told us. We buy what we like. Judging by the wares covering every surface, the Pingrees like a lot. That includes everything from wooden spoons and cutting boards to vintage clothes and retro lamps. “We have customers who are 12 years old who ride their bikes here,” she said. “They’re interested in cool, old, well-made stuff for
repurposing.”
But it’s pretty evident that Colleen and Don have rock ‘n’ roll hearts. The extensive bins of LPs hint at their devotion, which extends to fringed jackets, Harley-Davidson branded motorcycle boots, music posters, vintage tees, and miscellaneous hippie memorabilia. As Colleen noted, “If your grandma went to Woodstock, we want her stuff.”
Just up the road, the big red barn of Eagle Antiques (194 First New Hampshire Turnpike, Northwood, N.H.; 603942-5020) exudes an entirely different vibe. “We pride ourselves on being an old-fashioned antiques shop,” said Chuck Evans, who operates the store with Linda Wright. “It started out as a weekend hobby, and flourished into this,” he said, waving at the densely packed merchandise. The shop specializes in Maxfield Parrish prints, early Christmas and Halloween decorations, and Civil War memorabilia. Evans also repairs and sells antique phonographs. The flamboyant horns of vintage windup Victrolas might be the most eyecatching, but Evans was particularly proud of the earlier cylinder phonographs. He cranked an early Edison to life and played a circa-1900 musical comedy bit. The crackling, tinny music conjured up the early days of recorded sound.
It was good to see established shops were doing well, but we were also heartened by N. Dearborn Antiques Gallery (639 First New Hampshire Turnpike, Northwood, N.H.; 603-942-6637), which Joyce Fontaine established in 2019. The group shop of about 15 dealers occupies the annex behind her persimmon-colored house. With only a small group of dealers, the shop offers a well-curated selection of country and period furniture, quilts, some primitive folk art, and vintage transferware. “An online dealer mouthed off that shops like this would go extinct,” Fontaine said. But she’s convinced that shops like hers have staying power in the antiques ecosystem. “Dealers have to go somewhere to buy,” she reasoned.
Parker-French Antique Center (1182 First New Hampshire Turnpike, Northwood, N.H.; 603-942-8852; parker-frenchantiques.com) is a stalwart of the route. From a seasonal ice cream stand with a smattering of antiques on the side, it evolved into one of the founding shops of Antique Alley. It also purports to be the first group shop in the state. Today it’s home to 135 dealers, who mostly sell small goods and watch trends come and go. “Old furniture is not selling,” lamented dealer George Owen. But unusual decorative objects are popular. As we browsed, another customer snatched up vintage wooden snowshoes and antique metal ice skates to hang on a wall in his home. Holiday items are also in demand. “It’s Christmas all year,” Owen said, echoing a refrain we heard all along the route.
Parker-French used to have a second outlet next door. Last October, Shawn Laliberte and Richard Hodge became the new owners and rechristened their shop as Northwood Antiques (1190 First New Hampshire Turnpike, Northwood, N.H.; 603-942-5153). About 40 dealers rent space, but much of the merchandise is being offered by Laliberte and Hodge. “We specialize in a little bit of everything,” Hodge said. But certain categories stand out. The owners are quite fond of midcentury modern design and Wizard of Oz memorabilia, for example. Vintage cast-iron cookware is also particularly strong.
Less than two miles west, dealer John Price was managing the desk at Coveway Antiques (1557 First New Hampshire Turnpike, Northwood, N.H.; 603-942-7500). “We have real antiques,” he said, “from when people took pride in what they made.” Case in point was an exceptional collection of blacksmith-made wrought iron tools and utensils, some dating from the 18th century. Price himself specializes in fine glass, but the multiple dealers bring a host of interests from old bottles to manual typewriters. “We have everything from tractor seats to Tiffany,” Price said.
It doesn’t take a menage of dealers to create an eclectic shop, as Grand Army Antiques (17 Goboro Road, Epsom, N.H.; 603-736-4700) amply demonstrates. Less than 100 yards off Route 4, the shop occupies the barn-shaped former G.A.R. Hall and general store. It is overflowing with goods, but they sell quickly, staff person Lois Waters told us. Asked what shoppers come looking for, she had a snappy reply: “Deals! This is a good place to come.” Shop owner Larry Morgan is a clock fancier, and the shop sells a lot of old clocks and clock faces that buyers hang as wall decor. Whether you want a ship model or a painted rocking horse, Waters is open to “respectful bargaining. Just don’t whine.”
In contrast to the vintage building of Grand Army, Thos. Bartlett Antiques & Oddments (114 Dover Road, Chichester, N.H.; 603-798-3116) occupies one end of a modern strip mall. But don’t let the location dissuade you from stopping. The multidealer shop emphasizes 18th- and 19th-century furniture and accessories. Many dealers opt for open spaces in the well-lit shop where they stage vignettes that show how to decorate with antiques. We were particularly taken with a cluster of hand-lettered signs that advertised various vegetables, piano lessons, and “FREE BUNNIES.”
The western anchor of Antique Alley is Concord Antiques (137 Storrs St., Concord, N.H.; 603-225-6100), a 7,000square-foot group shop in a massive red brick former railroad repair shop. Goods span virtually every niche of the antiques and collectibles industry, from vinyl LPs and vintage postcards to Middle Eastern and Asian rugs, from antique pottery and Victorian art glass to Southwestern and Mexican silver jewelry. Clearly, the industry is holding on, maybe even booming. Concord Antiques, we learned, has 66 dealers and a waiting list that’s currently 71 dealers long.