‘We try to keep a real diverse collection in here’

MOSES LAKE — Opened less than a year ago, 3rd Avenue Antiques provides a look into the past through the various items collected by the store's five co-owners, who each have their own items of interest when collecting.

“Antique stores are interesting for a lot of things,” said Ken Haisch, own of the shop’s owners. “Even if you don’t collect, it’s a trip down memory lane. We get a lot of grandparents come in just to show their grandkids the old dial telephones.”

Along with Haisch as co-owners are Marion Lester, Teresa Allen, Karla Bartness and Bobi Spence. The group also sells numerous items owned by Larry Tracy, who passed away a few months before the store opened last September.

“Larry collected all of his life along with his wife, Judy,” Haisch said. “They were the people you didn’t want to be behind at a garage sale — they left behind an insurmountable amount of stuff.”

Haisch said Tracy asked them to help sell some of his collected items, which Haisch said took up about 10,000 square feet of space. 

“He really enjoyed doing it,” Marion said. “He was just retiring from being an attorney and enjoyed doing the antique store. He has everything.”

Inventory at 3rd Avenue Antiques ranges from furniture to children’s toys, baskets from Africa to vinyl records and paintings to stereo receivers, just to name a few. Some items even date back to the 1800s.

“Technically, to be considered antique, it’s supposed to be 100 years old,” Haisch said. “We kind of say 50 (years) or more.”

“And Larry just always called it old stuff,” Marion said.

There is a verification process that an item is indeed an original, especially when it comes to pottery, Haisch said. 

“There are some places all across the world that are turning out some great fakes,” Haisch said. 

Running the store takes a collective effort from the five co-owners. 

“There’s five of us in here, and we all trade days — we all work a day per week, and we’re open five days a week,” Haisch said. “We don’t have any payroll — it’s just us doing our things on behalf of each other and Larry.”

Keeping an interesting collection available to shoppers and making sure items are kept for posterity is important to the shop’s owners.

“We try to keep a real diverse collection in here,” Haisch said. 

“We’re preservationists,” Spence said. 

Ian Bivona can be reached via email at ibivona@columbiabasinherald.com.

3rd Avenue Antiques

114 E. Third Ave.
Moses Lake, WA 98837
Tues-Sat: 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
509-793-4524
Facebook: https://bit.ly/3W7UaQo

    There are hundreds of vinyl records available for purchase at 3rd Ave Antiques in Moses Lake, co-owner Ken Haisch said.
  

    Interests in certain items at 3rd Ave Antiques go up and down – co-owner Ken Haisch said there was a spike in interest in uranium glassware after a video on social media, and one customer came in to buy the bulk of their supply.
  

    While co-owners Ken Haisch, Marion Lester, Teresa Allen, Karla Bartness and Bobi Spence all contribute to the collection at 3rd Ave Antiques, the bulk of the collection comes from Larry Tracy, who passed away in 2023.
  

    Among the various items available at 3rd Ave Antiques are children’s toys, quilts, paintings and furniture.