Richmond's Old Depot Antiques specializes in women's vintage clothing

By Brooke Barker

April 9, 2006 | RICHMOND -- Walking through the door of the Old Depot Antiques store, I was taken back to the days of shopping with my Grandma. She used to drag me into shops like these, mostly because she liked what I, as a 7-year-old, considered junk. The words "look, don't touch" came to my head as I wandered through rows of knickknacks and vintage clothing.

I don't think Barbara Graham, the owner, would have minded if I touched anything. She had a smile on her face from the instant I walked in the door, dripping wet from the rain outside.

I wouldn't have dared, even as a young and curious little girl, pet the stuffed raccoon greeting me with its wide eyes as I walked towards the back of the store. The real treasures are back here, if you can find them. Old Native American paintings adorn the walls, mismatched cups and china sit on tables, books of all sorts are piled on shelves and the small collection of Mickey Mouse memorabilia sits along one wall. These are just a few of the collectibles in the huge room: beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

The Old Depot Antiques shop looks like any other building on Main Street: old, small, painted a creamy color and lacking any sort of real parking area. Once inside, however, it's a whole new world.

Graham and her daughter, Terri Bullen, opened the small shop in 1999. Graham used to pass the building everyday on her way to work in Preston, and began inquiring about it around 1990.

"Two brothers owned it and weren't willing to sell it at the time, but probably a year later they called to see if I was still interested," Graham recalls, with a bright white smile contrasting against her Native American skin and silky black hair.

Graham spent time repairing and remodeling the building, which first served as a depot station for the trolley system with the Utah-Idaho Central Railroad Company. The trolley made it possible for travelers to go from as far as Preston, Idaho, to Saltair at the Great Salt Lake. The station closed in 1947 after cars became a more popular form of transportation. The building was abandoned for many years until a family tried living in it, but left after traffic on U.S. Highway 91 increased. It continued to be unused for some time, until becoming a strip mall housing a laundromat, dry cleaners and barbershop.

Today, the building is divided into three large rooms, and perhaps the brightest is the room of old-fashioned clothing, shoes, hats and other accessories. Everything from a hot pink, feathered hat to white cowgirl boots from some wedding or rodeo queen competition can be found in the seemingly small room. Gowns with ruffles, polka dots, sequins, beads and in literally all shades line every wall, each representing a different decade of women's fashion.

Vintage clothes were the reason Graham and her daughter decided to open the shop. "We'd collected quite a few things throughout the years, and decided it was time to try and sell some of them," Graham says.

Today, Graham runs the store by herself, gathering new additions on her travels to places such as the Yukon. Her daughter is now involved with raising her own family and Graham's husband, a former veterinarian, recently retired, so Graham isn't sure how much longer she'll run the business.

"Right now I'm only open a few days, and my husband and I are going on a long trip, so I'll probably reopen full time around September," Graham said.

Currently, Old Depot Antiques is open Wednesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. I may have to drag my Grandma to an antique store the next time I see her, or rather we'll just have to walk down the stairs to her basement: after all, one girl's junk is another grandma's treasure.

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