Tucked away on the corner of West State Street and Maple Street in Mancelona sits Honey Hollow Treasures. The collectibles store contains strange and wonderful antique, vintage and retro items that have been carefully collected by owners Deb and Dave Newland, and though the shop has been open since 2017, they’ve been collecting their treasures for over 30 years to share with the world.
On my first visit to Honey Hollow Treasures two years ago I was drawn to a t-shirt hanging up by the cash register. “I Survived The Explosion of ‘95” it read in red letters over the pink fabric.
“How much?” I asked.
The cashier shook her head, “It’s not for sale. It belongs to the owner.”
The shirt was referring to an explosion that happened in April 1995 and took out three local businesses near where her little shop is today. No one died. Ever the plucky and optimistic town, Shirts were quickly put into production, and Deb, a Bellaire resident, picked one up when it happened. Since opening the store has no shortage of people asking to buy it when they come in.
“I don’t even remember where I bought it, it was a local business. I bought it thinking it would be a nice nightshirt and then forgot about it. I wish I would have known that it would be so popular, I would have bought 50 of them.”
Even with the shortage of Mancelona Explosion shirts, Deb has created a large treasure trove that anyone can find something to delight in. Books, jewelry, furniture, a wood-burning stove, collectibles, and variations of anything you can imagine can be found within the 1500 square foot shop.
“Mostly, I’m attracted to old glassware and dishes. I’ve had to train myself to look for other things too for variation. The license plates, the old crates, I just had to start broadening what I was looking for. Most people come in not looking for anything and just find something.”
I’ve been able to meet a few antique store owners and many of them go into the resale business because they need to offload some of their collection, and it feeds an addiction for The Hunt. They’re able to justify buying items they love because they’ll be able to make some profit off of it. For Deb and her husband, the plan was always to open a collectibles store. They’re still working through stock they have built up over years of traveling throughout the United States and going to sales of all sorts.
“It’s something that my husband and I talked about for years when we got older and a little closer to retirement. We would have time to invest in it and it gives us something to do. So we had just been putting stuff away all this time from estate sales, garage sales, auctions, thrift stores. We were able to travel to different parts of the country so we were able to pick up things from other areas. Estate sales are really great in Wisconsin, you’d be surprised. This building became available at just the right time.”
When I say antique, vintage and retro, it’s not to be redundant. Different era items get different distinctions. It comes down to age. Antiques have to be at least 100 years old, vintage can be interpreted more loosely, but is usually considered to be when an item is over 40 years old. Where antiques are more delicate, many vintage and retro items can still be used practically in everyday life. Retro might conjure up thoughts of avocado green, burnt orange, and geometric patterns, but mod style indicative of the ‘60s is considered vintage. Retro, a shortening of retrograde, refers to the recent past, typically within the past 20 years. Honey Hollow has a mixture of all. Antique furniture, vintage glass sets, retro books, and other charming sundries.
Community is important to Deb and she has a lot of love for the Village of Mancelona. She participates in county-wide shopping initiatives and has local customers come to shop at the store.
“The people that live in Mancelona are glad to have businesses here. They’re very supportive.”
There’s a sale going on right now, half-off books, Avon, and glassware. This upcoming Small Business Saturday, she’ll have 50% off of the entire store on Friday and Saturday. Find her at 101 W. State Street in Mancelona, open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday through Sunday, check the store’s Facebook @ Honey Hollow Treasures for shop updates.
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