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You never know what you will find at antique mall

By ELIZABETH BETTENDORF
Published April 28, 2007

PORT RICHEY - Aleida and David Jones met as restaurant managers more than two decades ago. Their jobs sparked a romance that centered on a shared, longtime passion:

Antiquing.

For the past 15 years, the couple have owned Lyon's Head Antique Center, known among obsessive antique hounds as the most mammoth antique mall in Pasco County.

In January, they swapped their old digs in Holiday for a new location: a 23, 000-square-foot former Ethan Allen showroom on U.S. 19 in Port Richey.

The move didn't deter loyal customers, who drive from all over Tampa Bay to browse displays by 77 dealers specializing in items including antique kitchenware, fine crystal and 1930s toy cars.

"Once every six weeks I've always had to have my walk-through at the Lyon's Head, " said Marilyn Strandell of Palm Harbor, a stained glass artist who shopped at the new location for the first time this week. She estimated that she has been shopping at Lyon's Head for more than 10 years and has furnished much of her home with her finds.

The showroom - its exterior sporting fresh taupe paint, crisp black awnings and manicured landscaping - looks like the kind of place you'd go to buy new furniture rather than, say, a highboy from the 1930s or a Victorian stereopticon viewer and slides.

But the Joneses wanted customers to have both. Blended among the bright, beehive of display space is a selection of new furniture that works well with antiques.

"I like mixing old with new, we do it in our own home and I think it really looks good, " says Aleida, 57, who was born and raised in St. Petersburg and whose father, a local carpenter, was well known for the delicious smoked mullet he sold on weekends at St. Petersburg's famed Webb's City once billed as the world's most unusual drug store.

"Everyone knew him as Louie and he sold mullet there for years, " she recalls. "I used to go with him on Friday nights. I remember the mermaid show and the big fat ice cream cones."

For his part, David Jones, 47, has liked history and antiques since his childhood in Buffalo, N.Y., though he says his wife's love of her Florida roots is contagious: "I must have walked with Aleida a dozen times through her grandmother's old house in St. Petersburg, " he says.

Walk around the store with him and he'll point out some of his favorite, cool stuff: a real recruiting poster from the Revolutionary War, a cast-iron stove from an old caboose, a bar-room gambling machine from 1933. He pauses to admire one dealer's collection of small antique ivory figurines, and points out an old mourning photo adorned with braided locks of hair.

Amidst all the serious stuff, you can still find a real, '70s disco ball, old flamingo salt and pepper shakers, a plaid lunchbox from the '60s.

Adrienne Manta of New Port Richey, who along with her husband, Ronnie, both works and maintains a booth at the store, points out her own favorite item: A sleek, German-made entertainment center complete with a record player, radio and eight-track tape player.

"My pride and joy, " she says, offering a tour of her large booth that includes an elegant working 1940s electric fireplace outfitted with a large, classic mantle.

Fellow dealers include a podiatrist, an elementary school teacher, a drug counselor, a stock broker and a car salesman.

Around every turn, the place reveals more surprises: a gigantic Swarovski crystal chandelier, real orchids (huge and profusely blooming and grown by a store employee with a passion for gardening).

A local artist is making a garden sculpture for the store, hand-stained, concrete, classical maidens from European molds.

"You can't find anything like this at Home Depot, " he says.

The Lyon's Head also boasts estate jewelry including cameos, pocket watches and Art Deco cocktail rings; lots of unusual lamps; and an assortment of signed artwork.

Aleida, whose personal passion is collecting old Royal Doulton "lady" figurines, points out some of the antique sterling silver flatware sets, the bookcases from the turn-of-the-last-century.

Kind of like a mini Louvre, it can take days to fully walk through the place and see every item: Says Aleida: "We've been here for months and we're still discovering things we hadn't seen."

Fast Facts:

If you go

Lyon's Head Antique Center is located at 9825 U.S. 19 in Port Richey. Call (727) 943-0021. Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. seven days a week.

[Last modified April 27, 2007, 23:08:00]