Garden Gate Antiques & Collectibles Opens Wednesday, May 11th, 11am-4pm

Dear Friends and Neighbors,

I’m pleased to invite you to the GARDEN GATE ANTIQUES AND COLLECTIBLES’ gentle opening at 36 West Main Street in Dryden village, two doors up from the Dryden Hotel, on Wednesday, May 11th.

In the 1960s and 70s I had had a shop in Skaneateles and was missing it. In Cortland, I started Victorian Sales, a household liquidation business and we ran tag sales in the era before there were any garage sales. Soon, I had a large staff and bought antiques and more antiques, many of them boxed and put into storage. We also held monthly sales for many years in a little house on Tompkins Street, Cortland.

During those years with my little boys, for family entertainment we attended Munson Auctions in Groton. So my sons grew up with knowledge of antiques and with the kindness of the many antique shop people who also attended the auctions. We boxed up our excess auction purchases and added them to the storage units’ growing collection of boxes. “Someday I will deal with all this,” I told my family when the count went past 1000 large U-Haul boxes.
Boxes from my family were added at the storage facility as the previous generations passed on. But most was residue from my Victorian Sales business from 1977 to 2000.

Years passed. I moved back to Dryden. I aged. “Someday” had come. Finally, it’s time arrived to liquidate my “stuff”. I got several hundred boxes opened and sorted. There are hundreds of boxes yet to open, amazing items yet to discover.
We plan to open several of those pre-2000 big boxes every week so that new stock will be there often. And I firmly believe that the only items marked “Made in China” will be from before 1940 and WW2. That might make for a refreshing experience!

Our new sales staff, Joan Torello of Dryden and Irene Gutchess of Groton, along with my son, Lew Garrison, will welcome you and provide service. Please tell us your wants. We are eager to make your shopping and gift-giving pleasurable, and our shop an addition to a vital downtown Dryden.
We’re open 4 days a week: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday: 11am-4pm. On Fridays we will stay open 2 more hours, until 6pm. Please stop in soon.

Yours in antiquity,
Elsie Gutchess