HomeMy WebLinkAbout1994 Sep 29 - Register Article: "The Mercantile Brings Back a Lost Era to Yarmouth"„
Register fi 1'htusday, September<29�` 1994: Page:” B
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The spirit of the past lives on at the Nineteenth Century Mercantile im'South. ;. The Nineteenth Century
Mercantile sits. like a Norman Rockwell painting along
Yarmouth. Staff
Photos by Matthew, : toute 28 in South Yarmouth.'
Thi M r nil r
e e c a t B In s Back a Lo st
_
Era to Yarmouth
By Susanna Graham-Pye
office and finally .a pharmacy. ,The problem, ay m the
Stepping through the doors of the Nineteenth'Century
Mercantile in South Yarmouth sends, reelin " back-
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Pe0 l e sa' , WOW. th ZS ZS :
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fact the building had been vacant for more than• two
ears which 'under. town tonin would deny her any
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ward through"tune, right back ,to when the four. con_ieis
right
home to the:Kelleys Bakers Crowells;
.
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hke i.7turbrtdge.,Y illage or
grandfathering rights she might have hid.
But -four many hearings 21 tons dem6li-
and .
years, and of
The whirling overhead' fans send flickering shadows
.. . ,
Old W l-Zarnsbur . The
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tion later; Ms.` Amster said it was. -all .water- under the =;
bridge:
over glossy wooden cases` that are illed'with glistening
,
proverbial
bottles of Uncle John's and Lydia Pinkham's cure -alis,
;' .:
love it., And I say to them
The dark oak wood interior of.the store was.an amaz- ,
delicately fashioned vials of perfume, and paper= .
Y
ing find that lends authenticity -to the patina ofthe,place• -
wrapped dry goods..
`Wouldn 't you be disappoint-
originally, Ms Amster said she intended to put very
Candy and homespun handmade shirts, top. hats and
primitive shelving up to hold her wares. First, though,
bonnets, dress patterns and oil lamp globes and glorious
ed' if 11Nere Wea>^Z1Zg blue
she put in `a call or two to some architectural salvage
furniture in deep .dark, woods and vibrant velvets =
ou would expect to find in an old mercan-
,.
. , �; 7� T ,
Jea%ZS and a SW eatShZY't. 1 Y 0
yards. Those calls paid off when someone_ called from -
Roanoke V tenor of a
to askif in
tile' is there.
The sound of a too=loud -car radio blatting out rap
Z t W 01.Z` n' t WOY' a Ll
nearby 18Va.
s being tom down ire "
Adding' to the sense that you have stepped into '
music at the Route 28 lights, or thewailing sirens of a
Old
—Barbara �Y Ster, OWtler
.another time is Ms. Amster's ;garb. She dresses in the
19th ' herself from
passing ambulance racin onto North Main Street
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cen clotlun she made the pattern
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are startling. under'the best of circumstances Butwhen
- " - " __-
"replicas she sells.`
you are ,standing- in the Mercantile, the sounds reach out
:; = "People say, `Wow this is like Sturbridge Village' or ..
andshove you back to the"present
ood it's s1ffil ut there" 7 µ: ..:, ' *� AOId Williamsburg.' They"love :it," she noted. "And Tsay
As- a noises,;of todA ;,recede you will uickl .,return _
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_
:. > . r s. 5 .to the, Wot ldn t you :be4disa o4mted if -I were: wear-
lymding tlYe roducts,she� owe asonce ere Y pP
64"t.lon : a�ovn�e>>-' a§ .a -h
"`a-sweat?'-ICTo;r'iwouldnt't worn
This -is not. your average replication of an;old-time
here a catalog there =
at`all "
" store:.nothin .. save the- buildin an . shelvm is .
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a �� Ms..Amster ho es the Ninet enth= ="
I: ess rt was ust a dream I had; she said, smiling p v ... a Century 1Vlercantile '
, .. -
antique.. There are no ;old -baskets hanging from, the
-
"You.kuow how"people`dream about being an archaeoi lis -an exa nple'of'what can b.e done- in the Bass River
rafters,:no.quaint-rusty license,plates nailed to the walls.
ogst or. somethu Dreamm those:thin s doesn'finean
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area. Several town hall -,officials; have. ,held the
Every old-fashiionedthing in ahe store is'new -
_
you will ever be t or do rt "
Mercantile up asTjust such an ideal T `
"Why should .. anything be: old?" asks Mercantile
"I ain," she said with a broad gesture around the
The demands of running a retail -store are greater than '
owner Barbara Amster. "If your grandmother or great-
store-
tore
she anticipated ; Ms: Ams e -f -is stock'°bb- sales clerk,
grandmother
grandmother. came into a store like this; she wouldn't
But,'as lyricist and playwright Stephen Sondheim
" bookkee'per, buyer and cleaner, "as well as being the
have been here to buy old stuff. She'd want brand-new
says in one of his songs: wishes come true, not be'. , !
mother of a 9 _year old daiighter_dnd -10-year-old son.
things."
The obstacles 1VIs. Amsterfaced in renovating the old
Much of what; she does•is for her chi! she hopes `
Mercantile -s were the Bradlees,of their day,-providvig
--building -the permitting, the hearings, the appeals, the
to carry on the"old Mercaptile`tradition of handing the '
a little bit of something;for everyone and somehow Ms ;
expenses .=were many.-
.. bu_siness,:. h th ough the�fani ly_
Amster has done just that in the .here and.now. The
:..:
It I had known when I first gotmto=it what=it would"f
ho. 'e whaI,'m creatm� Tissoethin that wili src ..
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range of what she sells s hu "ze," �but-each_ item shares ;a
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take, I. might have skd forget.it,7 she said. '!But -IL, was in
.>.
ceed someth -"Ah-h-1- .las't=" "she .said, "I` don't ;.
,
19t> .cen ` oriin; whether in desi or in the atent=
, s.. ....g, =
t1?- and; ea'%Ahing I encountered just seemed to.inake �eX' ect.to<make`:a, illion.dollars BuY:I'd like rt La be = .
ing ;of ingredients: The only thing she sells that was not . __
me more deternuned." '":- - < �.
°around;- I' d: hke my ehldrep to�be ~ a�b totake over
e
first made in the l 9th century is the cologne_ that George
One .of the roblems `she faced was' the 'a e'
primary- Y p . $
, someday if they want to I7cmd of think of it as a lega-
Washington wore.'
e- are'amazed that so man • of these thins are
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`But
of the building.; ;CYs _ w*
_;.
QQriginally the: building was-rdpewalk constructed "I'm' resein o of the ast for' . e` :o le.vuho .
Bass Riverwas bus ort g p p
South, Yarmouth
still_made," she said: they are, if you want to take
when a Y P. _-.. , and
:• come here," slgsard ,-And, T. hope, it be some- _
the time and-energy,to find -something, chances' pretu.
was called . =