shawneeroadantiques

Shawnee Road Antiques of Baroda Celebrates 50th Anniversary this Weekend

shawneeroadantiques

Ted Muellen was a minor partner at the age of just 12-years old when Shawnee Road Antiques was launched in 1969. Tomorrow, he and his crew celebrate their 50th anniversary in business outside of Baroda, claiming to be Southwest Michigan’s oldest and largest private antiques shop around.

Muellen and his mother, Dorothy, started the business in the rustic, white-washed barn that was built by his grandfather way back in 1938, and this weekend they are marking the occasion with everything in the business on sale. It’s not only their 50th Anniversary, this marks their 18th Annual Memorial Weekend Sale which has become a popular tradition drawing crowds from miles around every spring.

Dorothy re-married antique dealer Bill Fucsik in 1978, and he died in 1996. She, herself, passed in 2010 leaving the business of Shawnee Road Antiques solely to Ted who operates it to this day.

While the business started with just the iconic white barn, built by Ted’s grandfather, the enterprise now encompasses three buildings and a trailer, all filled with things from yesteryear.

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Ted tells me that the Main Shop building was built in 1972, and they expanded the business by opening the Blue Barn in 2003. That building was first used for farming, but the sidebar business, Apparel from the Past, opened in a new area there a dozen years ago in 2007 in the Blue Barn.

Half a dozen years ago, Ted added a 1960’s semi-trailer in 2013 for his collection of “Parts and Pieces,” another popular section at Shawnee Road Antiques.

The business has been supplying collectors and dealers for 50 years now, and this weekend’s celebration will be a big one with everything on sale tomorrow, Saturday, May 25th through Monday, May 27th, with extended hours running from 10am until 10pm each day.

In the Main Building you will find more formal furniture and lots of small items for your decor desires. They are all actual antiques, not the more typical collectibles. The building contains row after row of furniture, crocks and more. There are literally thousands of small items throughout including Art Nouveau and Art Deco lamps, candlesticks and statues.

In the White Building you will find country furniture, architectural items and many more small items. There are Firkins, Pie-Safes, and Step-Back Cupboards, wooden bowls, bottles, crocks, jars, and baskets on shelves filled with items. The white wash walls help to really showcase some of the great treasures there.

Building #3 — the Blue Barn — has lots of furniture in “as-found” condition as well as garden items and the vintage clothing room. Apparel from the Past is located inside a Victorian storefront built into one end of the Blue Barn with the largest women’s vintage selection you could ever imagine, dating from the late 1800s to the 1970s. In addition to dresses you will also find hats, shoes and purses from days gone by…even swimsuits and coats.

At the 1960s Semi-Trailer you’ll find it filled with “Parts & Pieces” like dressers, mirrors, table leaves, doors, wood trim or any sort of part. There’s even a Little Red Shed where everything is half off the lowest price every day. The whole grand affair is capped off by the Fanciest Outhouse Ever, complete with chandelier, marble-top table and hand sanitizer.

Check it out for yourself, especially as they mark their 50th Anniversary in business this weekend. Cash and checks are accepted and you can find them at 638 E. Shawnee Road, just 2.5-miles southeast of Baroda, or by phone at 269-422-1382.