AROUND THE PARK AGAIN By Sharon Lee Tegler
Whether greeting customers by the entrance to her shop or showing them around, MaryAnn Neal is a treasure trove of knowledge about the treasures within. It’s been one-and-a-half months since she opened Red Apron Estate Sales & Shoppe with her husband Cam at 4A Riggs Avenue.
The Neal’s shop features old, new and local treasures and is notable for its history and because it carries items we loved in the past and can love once more. Every item – from penny candy and vinyl records to fine china and wooden furniture – stirs memories and kindles our imagination to envision what it might become.
Seated on her favorite piece of furniture, a high-end Baker sofa, Neal related what she knew of her building’s past. Built in the 1920’s, 4 Riggs Avenue was briefly a grocery store but was known, for more than a decade, as Doc Codd’s pharmacy. In 1944, following the death of Dr. Francis Codd, it became Cliff Dawson’s variety store featuring liquor sales, a soda fountain and a slot machine. In 1952, Dawson relocated to the corner of B&A Boulevard and McKinsey Road and the former store eventually became home to the Antique Marketplace.
“When Antique Marketplace’s owner decided to retire, the location sort of fell into my lap,” she said.
Neal created and introduced her Red Apron brand in 2012 after she left her job as Program Director for the Severna Park Community Center. In order to sell pieces of furniture she’d been collecting and refinishing from estate sales, she organized a series of Red Apron Second Sunday Markets at Holy Grounds Youth Center.
Aware that most of what doesn’t sell at estate sales ends up in landfills, Neal hated the idea of “one more thing going into a landfill that didn’t need to when it still had a great life left”. Consequently, she began collecting good quality pieces that didn’t sell – pieces that became her Second Sunday inventory.
At that point, she hadn’t really contemplated starting an estate sale business of her own.
“It was kind of thrown at me,” she said. “I found redoing estate sale pieces for Second Sunday Markets a lot of fun. However, I wasn’t getting the turnouts I needed. Then my neighbor across the street lost his wife. He was a great neighbor and by himself since his children were in Seattle. So I started helping him get cleared out. I quickly saw he was overwhelmed by the enormity of the job.”
Neal too was overwhelmed. In addition to the furnishings her neighbor’s house contained on its main level, furniture inherited from his wife’s parents was stored downstairs. She finally asked, ‘”Why don’t we have an estate sale and I’ll run it for you?” to which he replied, “Here are the keys, I’m moving to Seattle.”
Everything was left for her to deal with. The complicated undertaking became her first estate sale and it went well. She proved “a natural ” and just kept going.
Estate sales no longer take place only when people pass away. They’re most often held because folks are downsizing to a smaller house or condo. They have too much stuff and no idea how to dispose of what they don’t need. That’s where Red Apron Estate Sales comes in.
“We tell clients to get everything they want out of the house. Then our team comes in, goes through the entire house, gathers and sorts things, makes sure everything is clean and sparkling, and stages it all for in-person selling,” Neal said.
She noted that the Red Apron team is very visual. They’re determined that, when customers come through the door, “everything just pops”, even going so far as to drape their signature red tablecloths to the floor on each table for impact. Objects are moved about to dress up an empty corner or a wall. The personal touch is equally important so Cam Neal, who is very personable, greets prospective customers at the door.
Red Apron Estate Sales are known for everything being organized, clean and easy to locate. The company has just two days to sell everything over a weekend. Items are marked at a price the market will bear on a Saturday and everything is marked half-off on Sunday. The goal is to clear everything out of the house but they are not giving it away either.
The estate sales are advertised in numerous ways. The best way to find out when they’re happening is through Red Apron’s website at www.redapronestatesales.com. The sales are also posted on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. About two weeks before a sale, pictures will start appearing. The Wednesday before a sale, the team will send an email to their nearly 3,000 subscribers noting key categories of items being offered. A newspaper ad will run as well.
As for the Red Apron Shoppe, it’s true to its motto selling treasures that are old, new and local. The front counter is something of a throwback influenced by Cam, a Severna Park native who fondly remembers visiting Dawson’s Store as a child and having owner Cliff Dawson help him pick out penny candy from large glass jars. MaryAnn also grew up in a small town and loved the idea and has incorporated similar glass jars and penny candy in her front counter.
In addition to products from local artists, the inventory includes vinyl record albums (both vintage and newly issued) which have regained popularity in recent years. There’s a special powder blue phonograph on which to test them out. Vintage radios and a 1960’s era record player complete the picture.
The shop does not accept consignments but does straight sales. When an estate sale is over, Neal will buy a piece or two that’s left directly from the client. Those pieces make up the bulk of her inventory. However, she’ll occasionally accept something from the general public.
Neal finds that, after several years when young people shied away from buying what they considered antique furnishings, they are now coming in a lot. She believes she’s attracting more and more of them because they like the idea of recycling and re-purposing. They’re discovering that older furnishings are well crafted, made from real wood or authentic materials and often more practical.
“Even items like china cabinets that I couldn’t give away are being redone as indoor greenhouses to hold plants,” Neal said.
The blue/gray hutch seen here was painted and re-purposed by young mom, Lindsay Webster, who works the Red Apron estate sales and started her own company called Good Bones Restored. She is very skilled at redoing special pieces that MaryAnn Neal picks out for her. Alongside the hutch is an antique miniature salesman’s sample cabinet that she’s painted light gray.
The Neals prefer to keep most pieces of furniture in their original state. However, they find that repainted or repurposed pieces sell quickly.
Price ranges for different pieces are closely matched to estate sale prices and very reasonable. For instance, they are asking $800 for the Baker couch pictured above which is in excellent condition. New, it would sell for about $2,500. An outdoor glass-topped table and six chairs with the seats newly re-covered by Neal is priced at $350 while a two-tiered wooden Clover table is marked $100. Some quality furniture that came from Park Place apartments is similarly priced with attractive ladder-back chairs going for $30 apiece. An antique high chair at the back of the shop is marked $40.
The gorgeous set of high-end Royal Doulton china pictured below is marked $200 and would definitely cost more if purchased online.
The light blue glasses in the foreground of the picture below are selling for $15 for a set of six. Although the fine china dinnerware on the buffet and hutch beyond are from prestigious manufacturers, the sets are not quite complete. Thus, they start at $80 for the Johnson Brothers set and more for the Lotus set. The open drawers of the buffet are filled with hard-to-find vintage hardware, each piece priced at $1. Customers who are into DIY furniture refinishing projects love searching through them for just the right drawer pull or nob.
Because the Red Apron Shoppe will be right in the hub of things when the 4th of July Parade comes down Riggs Avenue to the judging stand, Neal has put together decorations for the occasion. Though she won’t be opening that day, she will have bottled water on hand and a display of penny candy on the sidewalk by the entrance. (The Greater Severna Park and Arnold Chamber is reminding everyone that the parade will actually take place on Monday, July 5, and will step off down Benfield Road at 10 am.)
Mentioning the parade was a reminder that one of MaryAnn’s aims in opening the shop is to “bring a touch of Severna Park back to Severna Park”. Both the Neals have observed that the local population has exploded to such an extent that the town is no longer suburban but urban and, despite the density, people seem to be more isolated.
As a child, Neal considered the downtown area of the small town she grew up in her “babysitter” and spent most afternoons there. She would like to see Severna Park regain that same kind of friendly atmosphere.
“We still have this beautiful downtown area of Olde Severna Park that’s very walkable,” she said. “It’s a great place to enjoy our local history and small businesses. The center of town is right off the B&A Trail and, within walking distance, there are several restaurants, Diehl’s Produce Stand, a bank, a barbershop, the old train station and Hatton-Regester Green. Sheltering during the COVID pandemic caused us to lose some of our town’s identity but it did encourage people to get out and walk and experience a sense of community. We’d like to encourage that to continue.”
“We have the perfect triangle here and it should look better,” Neal added. “We need a sign that says ‘Historic Severna Park’.”
