Look who’s going to be back in business, first with a series of sales, then a store

If you’ve been missing Old Town Architectural Salvage, there’s good news.

The store is returning, first on a temporary basis and then on a permanent one. Well, at least for a few years anyway.

Owner Grant Rine explained that since closing his longtime shop at 126 N. St. Francis two summers ago, he’s unexpectedly been moving around his inventory.

He sold a lot before the store closed, and then put some in storage a few doors down, where he planned to hold occasional sales.

Then Hutton wanted a package deal for both spaces, so Rine moved to another storage facility before moving again to where he’s now reopening the shop at 2020 E. Douglas by the Canal Route.

“I didn’t realize what a hornet’s nest I was opening up for myself when I made that agreement,” Rine said of moving so much.

Before he officially reopens the store later this year, Rine is going to have a series of sales.

“We have so much inventory that we aren’t going to use anymore that’s built up over 25 years at the other site,” he said. “Man, that is a wide swath of merchandise.”

There are things from Joyland, old advertising signs, cash registers, typewriters, primitives, country furniture, musical instruments, light fixtures, stained glass, old phonographs, about 3,000 pieces of costume jewelry and “a lot of very interesting stuff.”

“It’s going to be priced really cheap with the intent that it’s got to go.”

That’s because when the store reopens on a more regular schedule, it’s going to be more focused on higher-end architectural salvage finds.

In its previous incarnation, Rine said there were items ranging from $1 to $50,000.

“We were trying to appeal to everybody.”

Now, he plans to offer what he called investment pieces.

“We’re going to be very selective about what we buy,” Rine said. “We’re really just buying more high quality, rarer pieces.”

Those items won’t be in the initial sales this summer.

Rine will offer almost weekly sales until he can clear out the merchandise. He’ll continue to add more items to the sales as he frees up room and can bring more things out from storage.

Then, the new business will start, but it won’t be until sometime in the fall at the earliest.

“We’re not going to be in business forever, but we’re going to kind of carry on for a few more years at this location and see how it goes,” Rine said.

A radiation oncologist, the almost 70-year-old Rine is not completely retired from his medical practice.

He said his architectural salvage business is fun the way he does it but is difficult to rely on to make a living.

Rine said he’s impressed with Helen Galloway, who is having her own sale to downsize her more than 50-year-old First Place store.

“She’s my role model,” Rine said. “I want to be selling antiques when I’m 94. What a dream.”

Rine also is having fun in his new space, which once was Armstrong’s Ice Cream that was both a factory and soda fountain.

“It was hugely popular when I was a little guy.”

Though it’s taking him a lot longer to get open than he ever planned, Rine said the store is “going to be pretty cool.”

He said the temporary sale space will be, too.

“It’ll look like a circus out here.”

This story was originally published July 14, 2025 at 2:19 PM.