Vintage furniture and signage were among some of the collectibles buyers had the chance to look through at Antique Fest.
Even with unusually hot temperatures baking the region this weekend, antique vendors and collectors were out in full force for downtown Centralia’s 21st annual Antique Fest, held along Tower Avenue over the weekend.
Sponsored by local merchants and the Centralia Downtown Association, the antique and flea market featured about 30 vendors with all sorts of old — and new — collectibles.
Janeal Woodruff and her husband Peyton of Centralia were selling antique furniture, trunks and other aged items.
“We’ve collected antiques our whole lives,” she said. “Our whole house is filled with them.”
Woodruff said they attend bazaars and other niche markets with their antiques a few times a year, mainly in the Seattle and Portland areas. Since they’re local to Centralia, Antique Fest is their most anticipated annual event. She remarked that this year’s event, despite the heat, was quite busy, especially on Saturday morning.
Woodruff was also there to sell her “junque” jewelry. She makes unique, repurposed jewelry and sells it on her Etsy shop, Janeal’s Junque. She also has a space in the Shady Lady downtown.
John Neely came all the way up from Salem, Oregon for Antique Fest, his second time attending the event. He was in the antique business for more than 30 years in Newport Beach, California, but now the semi-retired Neely does about 20 different swap meets and other sales events each year.
His large collection includes wagon wheels and portraits from the late 19th century as well as 20th century signage, license plates and other odds and ends.
Neely said events like Antique Fest help build a community among antique vendors, many of whom he sees at similar events throughout the region each year.
Joanne Graves, a retired Rochester High School teacher who resides in Oakville, was also in her second year selling antiques in downtown Centralia.
She said she used to do a lot of antiquing in the area in the 1990s, attending various merchant markets regularly. While she still sells vintage knickknacks and household collectibles, she has been focusing her retirement on creating upcycled game piece jewelry.
Graves, whose online business is called Dancing Dahlia Design, makes necklaces, earrings and keychains out of things like dominoes and poker chips.
“I always liked doing crafty things, and I wanted to repurpose these old game pieces,” she said.
Even her business cards are on the backs of old playing cards.
Gisela Fowler of Olympia had a unique collection of German, Austrian, Russian and French antiques for sale at Antique Fest.
Fowler, who grew up in southern Germany and moved to the U.S. in 1987, said she amassed the personal collection over many years, though she’d had a lot of her items since the 1950s.
“I just have no room for them anymore,” she said. “Everyone says it’s different from everyone else’s antiques.”
Like many antique collectors, Fowler held onto things for so many years because they bring her back to a specific time and place — a reminder of the past.
“Everything here has a story to it because it’s been with me most of my life,” she said.
