The Ultimate Antique Mall Road Trip: 5 Most Unique Destinations
Where are some of the most unique antique malls in America?
Antique malls are just amazing! Pretty much anywhere you go, if there is an antique mall you will be able to find something valuable to someone in a past life and wildly interesting to you in this one. I have found 100-year-old bottles with fluid still sealed inside of them and photos of people with writing on the back from the mid-1800s. These provide incredible insights into history and sometimes they can unknowingly show us a glimpse into the weird and macabre. That is what we will look for here in this article.
The 5 Most Unique Antique Malls in America
The Haunted Antique Shop - Deland, FL
Factory Antique Mall - Verona VA
America’s Antique Mall - Melbourne, FL
Larry’s Antiques - Cottonwood, AZ
M.S. Rau Antiques - French Quarter of New Orleans
The Haunted Antique Shop
In Deland Florida, there is an antique mall that has a catchy little saying of “Gently Haunted”. I see what you did there. This unique business offers haunted ghost tours and a club for ghost hunters, as well as ghost story writers and readers. So, clearly, they are all about the weird, dark, and mysterious. This is exactly what we are excited about finding, so that works well for us.
As well as the ghost hunting tours, they also offer you tarot card readings. Now you know they are really serious about their mysteries and have a firm grasp on the occult within their business.
This has got to be the exact place to find personal items from people that lived up to 200 years ago. When you find photos of people with writing on the back of them and they made it through all those years, it is just so interesting to think about the fact that they have been through so much. They have made it through wars and ups and downs of the world. They have passed on knowledge and memories from people you never would have known existed without them. What an amazing opportunity!
With all of this in mind, you have to expect that they have some great objects in their store to offer. If you are ever in Florida I would highly suggest giving them some time and go looking through all of the awesome little goodies that they supply.
If you want to visit their website, you can look HERE.
Factory Antique Mall
This is reported to be the largest antique mall in the United States of America! It has over 135,000 square feet and is said to be still growing. With items from history like WWI, the civil war, WWII, fossils, and ruins; there are SO MANY old and interesting items to find in the vast interior of this antique mall.
There are dolls from the 1800s… no thank you. If there is one thing in this world that creeps me out it’s cute sweet little dolls made for cute, sweet little girls back a couple or a few hundred years ago. Even saying it now, can’t you feel the creep factor increasing?
The above picture includes all items from the Factory Antique Mall in Virginia. There are surely some creepy ones as well as some interesting older ones that bring intrigue to the forefront of the mind. Wouldn’t you know it, they have taxidermy here as well! : )
Do you like clowns? That jack in the box looks insane to me. Can you believe they were kids’ toys way back in the day? Yikes…
There is old pottery like this statued head all over the giant antique mall. Hundreds of years’ worth of history and time into specific objects. If you find one that’s not haunted it would make a really cool piece to have in your home. Would you take that chance though?
You might not want to spend too much time playing with the puppet from the goosebumps. That thing looks primed to come to life and smother all of your other dolls in the house.
This location is for sure worth the visit, and you can spend hours and hours here without finding each end. Maybe go back a second time, because there are sure to be many pieces that you didn’t get to see the first time around. Take your time and look for all of the little details in the store. There will be loads of haunted and creepy items for you to delve into as well as exciting historical items for you to learn about people from a distant life.
America’s Antique Mall - Melbourne, FL
We are so lucky to have so many high-quality antique malls in Florida. I have actually personally been to this one here. You will absolutely LOVE this antique mall! There is so much space for you to take your time and look through every shop and what they have to offer you. There is great furniture and stuff for the house, sure, but even more interesting is the sheer amount of history that you can find. Look for the old newspaper articles from the 1700s and the license plates from when you had to hand crank your car. The oddities are so numerous here that I have literally spent hours myself and still haven’t found the end of the place.
Depending on when you go, there may be parts of the mall that have animal bones and there may be parts that have incredibly old personal journals for you to explore. There is also an antiques mall by the same name in Indiana, but this one is the only one that I have personally been to. You will see tools that cowboys used and probably some haunted dolls as well.
Larry’s Antiques - Cottonwood, AZ
All of the items above have actually been found at this antique mall.
Oh, heck yeah! Are you seeing what I’m seeing? An old hospital bed! How creepy and cool is that? This location has many other items like this for you to find. It is reported to have more than 2,500 lots spanning over 2 whole acres. There are 4 buildings and a 2-story barn for you to wander through in your journey to finding the most amazing pieces of history that you have ever seen. There is an old cowboy outhouse, a creepy marionette doll, the good ol’ OG McDonald’s sign, and an antique telephone booth in the items here from this location.
You can only assume that there are so many more treasures to behold when you find these many golden items with a quick look through their online sources. With so much space to look at, there is sure to be a lot for you to come across in the form of creepy, old, mysterious, unique, and odd items.
One thing to keep in consideration is that this location is an auction-style seller. The owner owns around 70% of the items in the store and the rest is owned by other people. There are no reserves for the items on auction, but it isn’t just a normal antique mall.
M.S. Rau Antiques - French Quarter of New Orleans
This is definitely one of the oldest locations we will visit in our journey of antique malls. It was opened in 1912 and has so much to offer. Get ready to be bougie, because a lot of the items here are insanely expensive. A lot of what is offered here is rare art pieces and expensive old jewelry. The most expensive piece at this location is reported to be $1,000,000! This antique mall is in New Orleans and you most likely aren’t actually going to buy anything. It will be a great time, however, because there are loads of things to look at while you are there. Sort of like a museum without being a museum that you COULD buy stuff from if you wanted to.
A ton of items on the website for this antique mall are labeled “Price Upon Request”. I am assuming that this directly correlates to the item being priced anywhere over $1,000,000. There is a dragonfly brooch for over $980,000 after all. It seems difficult to find a piece in this location that is valued by them to be under $200,000. You may want to take out some insurance before visiting. There are items from prominent historical figures like furniture and art, and this is a big reason why they are so expensive. Not only this, but the jewelry is insane in its own right. There are 50 - 110 carat necklaces and 20-carat rings. Insane!
We found 5 of the most unique antique malls in America. We found a place that we can’t afford, a creepy place, and some local Florida locations. There is plenty for you to go spend your time on looking at all of the most interesting items that America has to offer. Oddities are always so mysterious and intriguing to the human brain, and these fit perfectly within that category. Have fun!
Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read my article! : )