Are you hunting for antiques to furnish your home, or pieces to add a focal point to a modern room? Looking for paintings, tapestries, mirrors, rugs, jewelry or vintage clothing?
Mike and Dana McIntyre are the owners of a new business on South Main that is based on an old one. It’s name, Mid-MO Antiques, Furniture, Coin and Jewelry, reflects the variety of merchandise inside.
The McIntyres bought the stock of the former Hunt’s Home Decorating store from Phyllis Hunt last November. Hunt’s, formerly owned by Phyllis and spouse Chuck Hunt, was in the yellow-brick Burnham-Ortner row of store fronts, built in 1947, in the 300 block of South Main.
The Hunts carried Benjamin Moore Paint, window blinds and wallpaper, and offered picture framing. Phyllis Hunt added antiques to the mix after going on buying trips to the East Coast. The result: tons of stuff in storage that needs to be processed and placed on the sales floor.
“It’s continually going to be coming out,” Mike said. “It’s going to be an adventure.”
In addition to taking over the stock of Hunt’s Home Decorating, the McIntyres took over the same space, which still has the “Hunt’s” sign over the door. The McIntyres rent three sections of the row of store fronts along that block of South Main. The central one is their store. The one to the north is their daughter Matilda McIntyre’s Photography and Design Studio (660-869-7742).
The third is stuffed with items that Phyllis Hunt bought on her antique hunting trips — furniture, paintings, prints, pottery, etc., plus bolts of upholstery fabric and wallpaper from the previous store. Mike also has the old Benjamin Moore signage from the Home Decorating store, plus a box of painters’ caps and paint stirrers, Mike said.
“It’s all collectible,” he said, noting that vintage Benjamin Moore paint-can openers now sell for $10.
The McIntyres have a history in the local antiques trade. For six years, they rented space at Wagon Wheel Antiques, going from one to three booths after Dana started working there one day a week. They have always bought antiques for their home, Mike said.
Mike said he sees owning the antique business as a means of transitioning into retirement. The McIntyres moved to Clinton in 1982, where Dana grew up, after Mike’s job with an oil company required him to travel. Dana is the daughter of Bob and Audrey Browning and a 1971 graduate of Clinton High School. Two of the McIntyres’ four children live in Clinton, as do six of their 17 grandchildren
The McIntyres live a 1880s-era house on North 3rd, which they furnished with antique pieces. Subsequent finds circulate through their living spaces.
“I’m sitting here right now thinking about what I’d take home,” Dana said. “I’d trade some of my stuff out.”
The most challenging part of starting the business has been going through all the stock, Mike said. It ranges from antiques, at least 100 years old, to vintage items, defined as made between World War I through the 1970s. Stock includes old toys, knives and tobacco pipes. He has also found a lot of Disney memorabilia, and recently, found a Beatles poster when he was going through a stack of prints.
“It’s a discovery,” he said of sorting through stock.
They also have pottery, including Rosewell. Serving pieces of transferware, pewter and silver are displayed on antique tables throughout the store, along with lamps and vases. Brass chandeliers hang from the ceiling, A display of baby gifts is arranged on one table.
“None of it is junk,” Mike said of what Phyllis Hunt acquired on her buying trips. “She had good eye.”
A jewelry collector comes in to check their stock of jewelry, Mike said. Mike has always dealt in coins, he said, and is interested in buying coin estates as well as estates with antiques and furniture.
“We work with dealers, wholesale or retail,” he said.
While much of the stock is from the East Coast, an item with local provenance is the shoe-shine stand from the Cozart Hotel, which used to be on the Clinton Square. The upholstery on the seats is gone, Mike said, but the stand is pink marble with brass covers for the foot stands.
“It’s a classic,” he said.
They also have old books, including a first edition signed Harold Bell Wright, Windsor.
Mike and Dana are not discouraged by antique stores closing in Clinton and the area, they said. While Wagon Wheel Antiques is still rolling along at 219 E. Douglas, between 2nd and 3rd, the last antique store on the Square has closed, as has the large antique store on Highway 7 South, near the Bucksaw turn.
Instead, they see it as creating an empty space in the market.
“It was an opportunity for us,” Dana said.
The McIntyres are open by appointment. Call 816-289-0065. They hope to be open on regular days by September.
