My View of Life on the Dock
Find Tesoro Vintage Finds at 5 Short Street next to Caffe Sicilia in Gloucester, Mass., a close walk to Bananas and Cape Ann Auction.
(Adrift 284 Main Street on the East End closed.)
Anyone who has spent time looking for bargains should know about the Old Sloop Fair at the First Congregational Church in Rockport. The Old Sloop Fair takes place over three weekends. It is a marathon, not a sprint, and the first leg of this Rummage Sale to end all Rummage Sales takes place this coming Saturday. With a wealth of hand-knitted items, baked goods and household linens, not to mention enough clothing to cover all those semi-naked people loitering on Front Beach, the Old Sloop Fair is not to be missed.
Here is a slightly less hyperbolic description from one of the organizers:
The Old Sloop Fair at the handicap-accessible First Congregational Church of Rockport, 12 School Street, will span three July weekends this year. The Fair will begin with the Rummage Sale on Saturday, July 9 from 9:00AM to 2:00PM. The Rummage Sale offers gently-used women’s, men’s, and children’s clothing, bed linens, luggage, handbags, and much more. The Fair will continue with the traditional events — Silent Auction, White Elephants, Art Mart, Jewelry, Book Nook, Handknits, Ken’s Collection, Bake Table, and Snack Bar — on Friday, July 15 and Saturday, July 16, and conclude with a Giant Yard Sale on Saturday, July 23. For more information, visit http://oldsloopfair.org, send email to info@oldsloopfair.org, or call 978-309-9667.
Back in June, I moved to a new apartment, and did some shopping at second-hand stores (thrift stores, consignment stores, antique stores, etc.). I soon realized that there were more stores of that kind than I had suspected! So, I started my series of posts on second-hand stores in Gloucester and Rockport. What I didn’t even suspect was that I’d end up with a list of 28 stores, almost all of which I’d visit and photograph!
If you have been following this blog, you’ve probably seen at least some of my posts in this series. Unfortunately, two of the stores I visited have since closed – “Stuff” on Main Street (which closed before I could post about it) and “Junque and Disorderly” on Washington Street. But that still leaves us with a list of 26 stores, with a significant range of specialties and prices! I was able to visit all but two of them in person.
My conclusion after this marathon of posts is that Gloucester and Rockport should be known as a destination for second-hand items of all kinds: clothes (contemporary and vintage, for men, women and children), furniture, interior decoration, books, music, art, tools, etc. A few of the stores are only open in the summer, but many are year-round.
To make this information available in a manageable format, and to encourage people to “make the rounds” of the stores, I compiled a spreadsheet with the name, brief description, location, hours, website, phone number, email, and a link my GMG post about the store (where applicable). I wasn’t able to get all the information for every store, so if you have official data to help me complete or correct the spreadsheet, please leave the information in a comment on this post!
For the moment, I am making the spreadsheet available in a printable PDF file here: Second Hand Stores in Gloucester-Rockport – 13-09-09. It is 6 pages long, each page providing different info about all the stores (i.e. page 1 has the names and descriptions, page 2 is names and locations, page 3 has the names and hours…). Once the information is confirmed, I will possibly format it as a Word document, depending on what turns out to be most convenient and manageable.
Did I leave any stores out? (I just remembered one that should probably be on the list and isn’t…) What would be the best format? Suggestions are welcome!
Have you checked out Rockport’s newest old bookstore? Bullseye Books just moved from Bearskin Neck to a new location on Main Street, near Brother’s Brew Coffee Shop, Shalin Liu Performance Center, and Toad Hall Bookstore — you can get your caffeine, literary and cultural fix all in one spot downtown!
The bookstore has a great vibe, with plenty of flea market finds rounding out the great selection of used books. And the owners are entrepreneurs in more than one way, as they are also the purveyors of the soon-to-be-famous “Flyboy Scarf”, developed by owner Richard Clemens and manufactured right in Rockport, Mass. Check out the website for the scarf HERE and in real life at their Rockport bookstore.
Good Morning Gloucester 