The Red Door adds color to downtown

Local antique store preserves past

The Red Door, an antique shop in downtown Milledgeville, is not a mundane, run-of-the mill antique store. It has character.

Open the door and you are greeted by Raisin Cane, a tiny, long-haired Daschund, who leaves many customers with an irresistible urge to pet her.

The soft flow of classical music permeating through the shop is interrupted momentarily by the squeak of a dog toy, capturing the attention of the fleet-footed canine. Raisin runs straight to the toy and then is swept up into the arms of a middle-aged woman with hair blacker than midnight and darkly tanned skin.

“You are too wild,” store owner Susan Martino said in a soft California accent to her dog, gently caressing her head and holding her tightly as if she were a young child sleeping with her favorite brand new Christmas present.

“The store is basically named after the back door,” she said. “When I first got here, the business was on Hancock Street. I stuck with the red door in the back because it became a pretty good advertising slogan.”

Sales, especially antique sales, are in Susan Martino’s blood. Her grandfather owned an antique shop in West Los Angeles. Her mother owned one in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

“At the time I thought it was just a bunch of old stuff, but now here I am, and I love it,” she said.

Susan Martino is a single, divorced woman.

“I’m overworked, underpaid and stressed out, so there’s not much time for a personal life anyway,” Martino said calmly.

Her two babies are an adopted cat named Lucy and Raisin, the showcased daschund, whom Susan rescued several years ago.

Susan’s journey to Milledgeville is a story in and of itself. Originally from California, she moved to Georgia’s antebellum capital from Palm Beach, Fla. eight years ago.

“I met some people from the Fort Lauderdale area, and one lady became my best friend,” Martino said. “And so I would come up here to their lake house periodically and visit them.”

Martino’s friend developed cancer, and she came up to help take care of her and tend to the house for a few years. Simultaneously, she left her husband in Florida and had intentions of moving out west.

“I thought I was going to come out here and catch my breath before I moved to Oregon,” Martino said. “But I’m still here, and the people are very nice.”

At seven years old, The Red Door is the longest current running antique shop in Milledgeville.

But it is not limited to merely antiques; furniture is a big item of Martino’s interest as well. The shop is one of a few in the downtown area. Almost everything in the store is handmade, and, according to Martino, much more environmentally friendly.

“I have been very pleased to have more students prefer to buy antique furniture. It’s better quality. It’s recycling. Solid wood is actually less expensive than the IKEA stuff, and so beautiful. I love the look,” she said. “It does not release toxins. A lot of the newer furniture is made of sawdust and glue, and it releases toxins into the air. With the school’s attempts to go green, the students have been made more aware. That’s really where the economy has actually helped me.”

“It’s so clean in here. It smells so lovely,” Milledgeville resident Gracie Penuel said as she peruses the different displays. “And there are so many local products. They are displayed very well, much better than other places. There’s such great conversation here.”

Visitors inside The Red Door will find a wide range of items, from Civil War relics and Indian artifacts to works by local artists and local wines to sample from. With such a variety, there is something for everyone to look at according to Martino.

“Women can bring their husbands in and look around, and their husbands are kept preoccupied too and don’t get bored,” she said, chuckling, as Penuel joins in with a laugh.

Penuel makes her purchase and exits The Red Door for the afternoon, sure to return again in the future.

“This store is almost a meeting place for people. I’ve introduced so many people to the area, and I’ve made such good friends,” Martino said, as she watches Penuel cross the street. “All the people are the great. Some of the nicest ones come in here all the time. I’ve been able to meet people from all over the world.”

Bryan Cox and Kathleen Richardson, an elderly brother and sister pair, roam around the shop. Richardson, an avid writer from Bradenton, Fla. and fan of Milledgeville’s own Flannery O’Connor and Cox, from Baltimore are on a pilgrimage to see Andalusia and Milledgeville for the first time.

“This is a wonderful little store,” Cox said as the two visitors strike up a conversation with Martino about the Milledgeville area and the various antique shops around.

Minutes later, a much younger couple enter the shop.

“We’re just moving up here from Fort Lauderdale and planning on starting up a tattoo parlor,” the man said. “We’re in here seeing if you’ve got some furniture for our shop.”

“That doesn’t surprise me,” Susan said, gazing at the man’s arms covered from wrists to shirtsleeves in tattoos. “Everything you see is handmade and greener than anything you’ll find at other places.”

Before the couple leaves, she offers advice on other stores and what they may have as well as advice to the woman on a good veterinarian’s office that the woman, in search of a job, could work at.

“I’ve got several different people’s business cards. If people can’t find what they are looking for, I will send them to other shops if I don’t have it, and I will call the other places and let them know the people are looking,” Susan said. “Not many people do that anymore. These are tough economic times.”

Susan has been through her fair share of hardships with the economy, and she said the last four years, especially this one, have been rough.

In fact, when the sidewalk was torn up in front of her shop as part of a project by the city of Milledgeville, her business took a significant hit.

“I had to close down early a lot of times back then,” she said. “There were several days at a time when nobody would come in.”

A young mother with four young children enters The Red Door. One child comes in with her, holding her hand. The other three remain right outside the window, and Raisin retrieves her toy and runs to the window to pay the three young boys a visit.

Susan Martino still feels fortunate to be where she is at.

“I’ve been here seven years in a college town, and I’ve never had anything stolen. I haven’t had any bad checks, and I’ve never had to check identification for a bad credit card,” she said. “It’s not like I have several cameras around here and follow people around. The atmosphere is very laid back.”

Susan Martino believes part of that can be chalked up to good karma.

“How you treat people and the way you feel about people eventually comes back. And I feel very grateful.”

The young mother and her child exit, as Susan once again picks up and holds Raisin, kissing her once more on the forehead.

“She is such a girl, and girls just want to have fun,” Susan said about Raisin.

Susan Martino is having fun too.

Posted by Scotty Thompson on Jan 27 2011. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.