Something had to be done. Sherri Lawton Jameson and her husband, Robert, loved to collect vintage items. So much so that they started running out of room for their unique treasures. 

“We decided that if we didn’t start selling some of the vintage items in our house that the show ‘Hoarders’ would be called,” Lawton Jameson joked. “We decided we needed to do something.”

To the market they went—the Ann Arbor Antique Market, that is. For nearly five years the duo peddled their wares here and at the Rust Belt Market. Last spring they decided to team up with neighbor Robert Stanzler, and open a permanent space in Detroit’s eastern market.

The Skinny:

• Fun Fact: Sherri, who works as a designer by day, likes to repurpose items for the store. Think notebooks made from library books.
• Detroit Mercantile
  3434 Russell St.
  Detroit, MI 48207
• 313-831-9000
• info@detroitmercantile.com
• detroitmercantile.com

 

“The whole style
of the store is based off a general store,” Lawton Jameson said. “Back in the
day [they] would carry a lot of local things people need, and then they’d bring
in something exotic that people have never seen before. That’s the type of
stuff we try to bring in.”

Picture a collection of vintage finds, handcrafted goods
with a design bent and American-made products (including an array of things from
Michigan and the Midwest).

“A lot of the
stuff we have at the store is what you would imagine would be in an urban loft
in a large city,” Lawton Jameson said.

For Lawton
Jameson and her husband (they both grew up in Michigan), there’s no better time
to live and work in Detroit. The city, she said, is experiencing a “makers
movement.”

“For years you
always hear, ‘Detroit is coming back.’ You kind of get jaded about it because
you hear it so many times,” Lawton Jameson said. “This is the first time I’m actually
seeing it and feeling it.”

Just like the historic building Detroit Mercantile resides
in (a large red brick building where Detroit’s fire trucks used to be fixed),
Lawton Jameson’s pins this week give a nod to Detroit’s storied past, with a
look towards the city’s bright future.

“It’s a blank
slate. There’s no place to go but up.”

Each day this
week Lawton Jameson will share hidden gems she’s found in Detroit. Stay tuned
to see what this designer and Detroit Mercantile partner pins.