End Nears for a Market That Made a Scene "The Antique Garage" New York City

[C. Dianne Zweig Editor's Desk]

There were boutonnieres and bronze lamps and high-heeled platform boots. There were circus capes and tea cozies and books on palm reading. And there were leather baby shoes from the 1920s, as well as lingerie from practically every era of the last century.

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Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times

Peter Nadler, a longtime Antiques Garage customer, inspects a find. More Photos »

But where Andy Warhol, Susan Sontag and Greta Garbo once wandered through the flea markets along a four-block stretch of Avenue of the Americas stuffed with more than 700 hustler’s booths, there is now only the Antiques Garage, home to 100 booths on a busy weekend. And the clock is ticking for the Garage as well.

The Garage, a two-story playland of antique ephemera, was set to close at the end of the month to make way for development, a victim of the Chelsea gentrification that it helped usher in. But this week, its founder announced that it would be able to stay on a bit longer, after agreeing to a new month-to-month lease.

 

While New York’s flea market scene has exploded, with Brooklyn markets that sell organic pickles and bands’ T-shirts, the Antiques Garage still has roughly the same vendors that it did when it opened in 1994, selling the same wares. They are Chelsea’s flea market trailblazers, drawn indoors nearly 20 years ago after decades spent braving the elements. They watch one another’s booths, save finds for favorite customers and help carry recreations of medieval thrones up parking ramps.

 

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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/24/nyregion/antiques-garage-gets-a-l...

[Maureen Stanton]

Interesting article. Thanks for sharing.