Today we’d like to introduce you to Mark Charry.
Hi Mark, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I am Mark Charry , life long Philadelphia resident . Operator of The Architectural Antiques Exchange .
I started while a student at Temple University in Philly . I was interested in an entreprenurial pursuit ! (not academics !)
My first buy was stained glass windows. ( Bought a quantity of windows stored on the roof of a famous Seashore restaurant )
Then ,I was sourcing local demolition sites and then selling at antique malls and “flea markets” .
I evolved into warehouses and selling to dealers who I found by searching around the country ( in trade magazines and the Yellow pages !)
I was able to buy a big building here in Philly ( in the 1970’s ) and was “ready to go big ” !!.
Shortly after ( I had also doing shows to exhibit my items) , I was connected with a new magazine– “Restaurant Design ” and advertised there and that brought in a fair amount of new restaurant clients. Also – was fortunate to be written up in House Beautiful and The Wall Street Journal !!!
So , I was on my way … and during the whole process , was able to learn and understand the antiques market, sourcing demolition sites, trading with other dealers, importing from Europe and South America, and learning by trail and error – what would sell and what would be difficult to sell.
Things changed a few times during our existence (trends in design, residential and commercial) , but we were able to work with those changes and survive .
In the past several years , we have been focusing on procuring old tavern/saloon bars and that has been a great move for us .
It should be added here that – you can’t be in the antique /vintage bar business without have the capacity to do restoration !
And we still will exhibit – beautiful old doors with character, antique mantels ,and stained glass among other things- in our showroom and on our website .
It s a lot of work; from the sourcing, then on to the restoration , then on to the website, then the selling part, and finally the logistics of shipping out. And staying somewhat current on the trends as well.
Thats the story … from a flea market standholder , to selling out of a garage , to exhibiting at shows , to moving into real brick buildings , and on to the internet …- I ve done it all !
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Not always smooth …. there were problems with my first building ( which I owned) – with heating system and no AC, etc and I was buying the wrong stuff, it took time to understand the real market , and who the buyers were.
And then the field of restaurant design changed radically ! But fortunately antiques and old elements came in as trend into peoples homes .
That saved us .
Then there was the financial crisis of 2007-8
Then there was the pandemic of 2020-21
But there was always a way to overcome .
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We sell from our website all over the country !! We specialize in antique and vintage Bars — we are able to restore , change some dimensions, refinish ,and ship out .
We are also known locally for general architectural antiques – pieces that were built -in to old homes- like fireplace mantels , nice doors, lighting , stained glass , tiles , etc.
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
There seems to be a resurgence in decorating with some of our items !
Hopefully this will continue. Sadly , there are fewer dealers in these salvaged antiques
But , the owning of the real estate helps – in my future planning .
And it s hard to say what is going to continue– will “mid-century modern” stay desirable ?
Will folks recognize some of the great Victorian furniture again ?
What happened to “industrial ” style antiques ? They were really hot for a while.
Contact Info:
