New antique mall opens on North Shore

Burlap & Board Antiques and More offers antiques, local artists' work, coffee shop underneath Masonic Lodge.

Burlap & Board Antiques and More offers antiques, local artists' work, coffee shop underneath Masonic Lodge.

Chattanooga's North Shore neighborhood has a new antiques mall, which should help fill the void left by the recent closure of Knitting Mill Antiques.

Burlap & Board Antiques and More opened on Labor Day weekend at 191 River St. in a 4,500-square-foot space that formerly held Thrive Studio. It's located underneath the parking lot at the Hill City Masonic Lodge.

Burlap & Board already is home to 22 antiques dealers and has room for a total of 48 vendors once it expands on Nov. 1 to the adjoining space underneath the Masonic Lodge building itself, said Bear Meadows, who opened Burlap & Board with Chris Carlson and Steve Smith.

"Business is getting better every day," said Meadows, a retired nurse practitioner who's originally from the Tri-cities area in Eastern Tennessee and moved to Chattanooga a year and a half ago.

Along with antiques, the business offers custom embroidery, monogramming and a line of handmade men's beard and body oils. Local artisans who sell wares at the shop include Jewelry by Marjorie, Keith Brown Woodworking and Billy Hargiss Photography. The business also features Bear Grounds, a cafe with coffee, pastries that the owners make themselves and pies made by a chef.

Wares for sale include mounted deer heads and other taxidermy, mid-century modern furniture and - coming soon - a carousel horse from an artist who made animals at the carousel in Coolidge Park.

"We have a couple of dealers that deal in mid-century modern furniture," Meadows said. "We've always got a nice selection of mid-century modern."

The North Shore has long been a great shopping area downtown with lots of foot traffic, said Amy Donahue, spokeswoman for the River City Company, a private, nonprofit organization that promotes the North Shore and other areas of downtown Chattanooga.

"I would definitely say he is filling a gap on the North Shore for folks who are looking for that type of merchandise," Donahue said.

Kids can have their photos taken from Nov. 1-Dec. 31 at Burlap & Board with Chattanooga Santa Claus, Richard Bonnington, who used to set up shop at Knitting Mill Antiques.

Burlap & Board had its first incarnation as a gift shop 50 Frazier Ave. in a building next to the Walnut Street pedestrian bridge. Then Meadows heard the space underneath the Masonic Lodge and its parking lot was available from the lodge's president Bill Thornbury.

"When the space became available, he just happened to mention it one day, and it got me thinking," Meadows said. "More and more artisans were approaching us and asking us to sell their items."

So the business decided to move. Although the current space is under the Masonic Lodge's parking lot, there's no noise from cars above, Meadows said.

The cost for a dealer to rent a space inside the antiques mall starts at $200 a month, and Burlap & Board keeps 10 percent of the sales price.

Tourists often stop by Burlap & Board Antiques and More, Meadows said, which is open seven days a week and stays open until 9 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.

"I had no idea how internationally traveled Chattanooga is," said Meadows, who said the store has had customers from as far away as Wales, Japan and Venezuela.

Contact staff writer Tim Omarzu at tomarzu@times freepress.com or www.facebook.com/MeetsForBusiness or on Twitter @meetforbusiness or 423-757-6651.