Antique mall to open at The Weirs

After three antique malls disappeared in three years, two have appeared in the last week. Within days of the announcement that the Laconia Antiques Center would open downtown next month, Scott Grant, a native of Gilford who makes his home in Alexandria, Va., revealed that he would be opening PAWS Antiques on Endicott Street North (Route 3) at The Weirs in May.

Grant, one of the dealers displaced when Burlwood Antiques in Meredith suddenly closed last spring, has purchased the 24-acre property that housed Hearth and Home, the furniture outlet. With help from his cousin Sheldon Morgan, the director of public works in Gilford, he is in the process of remodeling the 5,600-foot showroom where he expects to house 110 dealers on one floor. Grant said yesterday that 85 dealers, offering china, glass, pottery, silver, jewelry, primitives and furniture, have already signed leases for booths, showcases and floor space. He anticipates that he will eventually make use of two outbuildings on the property.

Judy Morgan, Sheldon's wife who recently retired from the Gilford Police Department, will manage the seasonal business, which will be open from May 31 until October 31 on Sundays through Thursdays between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. and on Fridays and Saturdays between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.

"I've had an interest in antiques all my adult life and been in the business for the last 15 years," said Grant. Nevertheless, he added "it's a hobby for me... I'm a hunter. I love the hunt. The hunt is what it is all about. After you own it, it's junk," he laughed, confessing that his home in Old Town Alexandria is furnished with fine antiques.

Grant said he did not view the Laconia Antiques Center, operated by Tom Smith of Depot Antiques, and Charles St. Clair of the Laconia Motorcycle Weeks Association, as a competitor. "I want them to make it," he said. "if they make it, I'll make it and if I make it, they'll make it." Because each dealer has a unique inventory, the little direct competition between them is outweighed by the drawing power of numerous dealers in close proximity to one another.

The business takes its name — PAWS — from Grant's commitment to animal welfare and rights. He has adopted abandoned and abused animals for years and said that he intends to hold a monthly drawing for a share of the proceeds from the business, which will be donated to animal shelter in New England. "in order to get," he said, "you have to give."

Last spring, four years after Country Tyme Antiques on Route 3 in Belmont burnt to the ground, Burlwood and Bertha Mae's Antiques Center in Gilford both closed. At the time, Kathy Greer of Belmont, editor of "Unravel the Gavel," the leading trade publication, remarked that without "a destination shop," traffic fell off significantly when the season opened in May.

Burlwood remains closed, empty and for sale, but with two new malls set to open alongside the smaller shops in Meredith and Laconia, with the coming of spring the Lakes Region should once again be a popular halt on the antiques trail.