Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 18, 1993 TAG: 9304160024
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ELIZABETH OBENSHAIN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Long
LIFE AMONG TREASURES
Jean Fralin walks among antiques as others would walk among friends.She stops at favorite pieces to admire, to point out the fine craftsmanship in a wooden chest or a wavy pane of antique glass in a corner cupboard that has survived the years.
Antique furniture, like people, has personality to those who love it, who know how to look for the touch of a skilled furniture maker or the bit of eccentricity that sets a piece apart.
For the past year and a half, Jean Fralin has lived and worked surrounded by 150-year-old walnut cupboards, old quilts, tulip-tin pie safes and Victorian sofas - a wealth of the old and unusual - in the New River Valley Antiques Mall just off Interstate 81 at Radford.
Next door, she has also just opened the Mudpike Arts and Crafts Mall. Eighteen local artists have a variety of crafts on display from hand-painted porcelain to handmade baskets, wreaths and jewelry.
For collectors who might have found earlier antique malls too heavy on knickknacks, the mall that Fralin opened and manages on Mudpike Road will be a welcome change.
Nearly 40 dealers who have furnished booths in the antiques mall display a large collection of fine furniture such as a $4,200 pine pewter cupboard dating from 1810 or an early 1800s walnut plantation desk from Roanoke County with its own secret compartment. The desk sells for $2,500.
The antiques are in abundance. Room follows room with pieces as varied as a large yellow pine and cherry cupboard with the beautiful hues of old wood to a wicker doll carriage.
If none of this appeals, the mall also has hand-painted primitive furniture, now popular among antiques collectors.
A grain-painted pine cupboard could fit into a small country-style kitchen, while a huge wooden dry sink from Ohio that was grain-painted and dates from the 1860s would demand a larger home. The prices suit either end of the collecting scale: the cupboard selling for $215, the dry sink for $3,600.
Or if fine American antiques are too formal and you're looking for a conversation piece, the tiny glass-topped table with triangular chairs from an old Christiansburg pharmacy might suit. The table has a space underneath the glass to showcase curios.
The mall also boasts the unusual.
An apple ladder has an A-frame shape and a handmade style that would appeal to folk art collectors.
Another booth displays old farm tools such as saws, chisels, levels and even a huge broadax. Sitting in a window of the booth is a wooden box with the words: "Hercules Powder: high explosives dangerous." This memento of the New River Valley can be yours for $35.
One section would fascinate the kid inside any shopper. Finely crafted Lionel Line train sets are lined up on the table. A handsome engine, sure to appeal to any boy, is priced at $225.
The rest of the booth is hung with violins and string instruments, including a 'Tater Bug mandolin.
The dealers who rent space in the new mall are as varied in their backgrounds as their wares. One is a law student, another manages a local nursery; one is a local veterinarian, another an airline pilot from Austin, Texas.
Renting space in a mall allows them to display their wares without spending their days tending shop. That responsibility falls to Fralin, who obviously relishes showing customers the range of antiques inside the mall.
Her fascination with antiques began about 30 years ago in her hometown of Rocky Mount in Franklin County when she became friends with a local antiques dealer, Nell Greer.
Greer shared her expertise and her love of antiques with Fralin, and finally Fralin decided to get into the business herself.
She has now been in the antiques business in the region for three decades - first running a shop in Galax on U.S. 58 and then operating Old Cambria Antiques for more than 20 years in a house across from the Cambria Baptist Church.
Then in October 1991, she spotted a metal warehouse just off Interstate 81 at Tyler Road and Mudpike Road. The building had sat vacant for about a year and a half.
She approached the owner, Bob Sale of Radford, with an idea for an antiques mall. In 26 days she had lined up 20 dealers and opened for business.
Now, she has 36 dealers in 41 booths showing primarily quality American country antiques, quilts and accessories.
You might say she lives surrounded by antiques. Even at night, when the last customer is gone and the lights shut off on the chests and boxes and bowls and wooden toys, she goes upstairs to her apartment, never more than a few steps away from all those treasures.
NEW RIVER VALLEY ANTIQUES MALL Location: 3980 Mudpike Road just off Interstate 81 at Exit 109 to Radford. Phone: (703) 639-0397. Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m to 6 p.m.; Sunday, 1 p.m. to 6 p.m.; closed Mondays. Manager: Jean Fralin. Specialities: Quality American country furniture with some French and English antiques. Number of dealers: 36 in 41 booths.