Items Frozen in Time at Old Stagecoach Stop Go Up for Auction
Published at | Updated at
Courtesy of Brian Witherell(POPE VALLEY, Calif.) — Imagine walking into a time capsule. It’s a building, once home to a stagecoach stop, frozen in time. It was a general store, saloon, and hotel. The items inside have not been touched in over 40 years. Antique collectors will flock to rural Pope Valley, California — In Napa County — this weekend for a rare opportunity. They will be able to get their hands on a treasure-trove of artifacts.
The site is owned by 72-year-old Brad Kirkpatrick. Kirkpatrick, a lifetime tow truck company owner and volunteer fire chief in Pope Valley has decided to sell the items inside a location his family has owned for close to 140 years.
In 1875, the family of Kirkpatrick’s wife opened the business.
“It was a stagecoach stop,” Kirkpatrick tells ABC News, “We had stagecoaches coming from Sacramento Valley to Lake County. Every 20 miles to 30 miles they had to stop.”
Over the years the stagecoach stop became a small town. It included the store, saloon, and hotel plus a restaurant, U.S. Post Office, housing for horses, and later a gas station. Some in Napa County say it was the place where everybody gathered to socialize.
In 1971, when Kirkpatrick’s father-in-law died in a car crash, he and his wife inherited the site. With the constraints of running their own business, he could not take on stress of running the complex and decided to lock it up.
“I just couldn’t handle it all at the time,” he says.
When Kirkpatrick closed the business, he locked the doors with everything still inside. Everything.
Now 43 years after it was shut down, he has decided to unlock the doors and auction off the contents inside.
“I’ve kept it in good condition for all those years,” Kirkpatrick explains. “I put a new roof on it. The county calls it a roadhouse. I call it a stage stop.”
On Saturday, the contents of the buildings will go to the highest bidders. Inside they will find an antique cash register, shotguns, old auto parts, the original hotel furnishings, metal signs, original canned food in the store, and even a working Model T Ford which is expected to catch a few thousand dollars.
The Motel T is dusty, but Kirkpatrick says it will drive. Alcohol is still behind the bar. An old switchboard a telephone operator used is among the items that will be up for auction. They all remain in the place they sat decades ago.
Auctioneer Brian Witherell, who is a regular appraiser on PBS’ Antiques Roadshow is organizing the sale of the items.
“This site has just been stored awaiting its time in history to come full circle and now it has,” says Witherell.
Witherall admits the years of seclusion has taken its toll on the inside of the building. He tells ABC News it smells like rat urine inside and some of the items will need some tender care because they are in original condition but antique pickers will, no doubt, see it as a goldmine.
Any bidder who enters for a two hour preview on Saturday will have to sign a waiver acknowledging the hazards inside the old building.
“I’ve never seen anything like this before. In this raw of a state,” says Witherall. “It’s unheard of. It’s the reason we took on the project.”
A slot machine, believed to be from 1910, was found in the saloon with Indian Head pennies inside. Witherall says the slot machine will be sold at a separate auction.
Once the contents of the buildings are gone, the property itself will be sold. The 12-acres in Napa County wine country are currently listed for just under $2-million.
Kirkpatrick has only traveled outside of California once, to Nevada years ago for a firefighter event. He plans to use the money from the sale of the items and property to travel across the United States to see the rest of the country.
Follow @ABCNewsRadio
Copyright 2014 ABC News Radio