Antique Hunting in a Handsome Old Shirt Factory

A turquoise pie safe can stop an antiques shopper in mid-stride. It is the sort of piece that gives a browse through the former Hathaway Shirt Factory its momentum: a familiar household form in an unexpected color, surrounded by other furniture, collectibles and small objects waiting farther down the building.

The old factory now serves a second life as a mixed-use destination, with antiques at its center alongside other shops, offices and housing. The industrial scale of the place remains visible in the setting, but the shopping environment is notably clean, open and orderly rather than crowded with merchandise from wall to wall.

That combination makes this a particularly pleasant place to take slowly. There is room to walk among the displays, look closely at an object without blocking an aisle, and keep moving when one category is not quite your thing.

This is not a narrowly focused antiques stop. The fun comes from wandering through a broad mix of goods and letting the categories reveal themselves as you go. Small treasures turn up alongside larger pieces, and the building gives those discoveries enough breathing room to register.

A visit can suit the person hunting for a particular piece of furniture, but it also works nicely for someone with no shopping list at all. You can snoop through the displays, pause over an odd collectible, then find yourself drawn into an entirely different corner of the inventory.

The large former-factory footprint helps keep the experience from becoming visually exhausting. Antique malls can sometimes make a person feel as though every available inch has been pressed into service; here, the arrangement leaves space around the goods and around the shopper.

Book collectors have a worthwhile reason to linger. One stall specializes in antique books, book collections, comic books and other printed material, creating a focused stop within a mall otherwise built around variety.

It is a good counterpoint to the larger furniture and decorative pieces scattered through the building. A shopper might arrive thinking about a cabinet or a table and wind up leafing through old volumes, studying a comic-book stack, or spotting something to bring home that can fit under one arm.

The setting supplies much of the appeal. A former shirt factory naturally brings a sense of industrial history, and the building's reuse gives antique shopping a more distinctive backdrop than a standard retail strip.

Still, the presentation is contemporary in the practical ways that matter. The space is organized, the pathways are open, and real plants add a fresh note among the older furniture, printed matter and collectibles.

That balance makes the merchandise easier to take in. Instead of trying to decode a dense maze of booths, you can notice the individual objects: the color of a painted cabinet, the shape of a vintage chair, the graphic pull of printed ephemera.

The antiques mall sits within a broader repurposed complex rather than standing alone. The old Hathaway building has become a place with a mix of uses, bringing retail, workspaces and residences into a structure once devoted to factory production.

Over time, the complex has also hosted creative and hospitality-minded neighbors and activities, including a juried art show, shared workspace, a microbrewery and a flower shop. That wider mix gives the mill a lived-in, evolving character beyond a simple retail destination.

For a first visit, the entrance directions are useful. From the parking lot in front of the building, the indicated door is on the left, marked by a ramp and a flag; once inside, turn left for the antiques area.

After that, there is no need to rush the route. The pleasure here is in having enough room—and enough variety—to follow the next interesting object wherever it leads.