Park Avenue Antique Mall owners to retire, renovate building

IDAHO FALLS — The owners of Park Avenue Antique Mall are retiring, but they aren’t leaving the building.

Jim and Jeanne Cooper hadn’t intended on opening an antique store — it sort of found them.

A store of memories

They moved to Idaho Falls more than 20 years ago and were surprised when people lined up at their garage sale to buy leftover items they had brought from Ohio.

“It was like a stampede,” Jim said. So they rented space at a downtown antique mall and were again surprised to be selling out of items — in fact, they had to rent a bigger space to fill demand. It seemed that the items they were bringing in from Ohio and other areas in the east were hitting a nerve.

At the time, Jim was working at Idaho National Laboratory, from which he eventually retired, and Jeanne was in banking. But soon it was apparent that their antique business was taking off, and they needed their own space.

That is where the historical Independent Order of Odd Fellows building comes in. Located at 393 Park Avenue in Idaho Falls, it was built in 1909 by the Odd Fellows to house their group meetings upstairs, and retail space on the ground level, which had become vacant and was the perfect spot for the Coopers’ growing antique business to go.

Over the years, many businesses found their home in the ground floor of the IOOF building, including a grocery store, the Star movie theater, an undertaker, Woolworths and a ski shop. In February 1997, the Coopers rented it and opened Park Avenue Antique Mall. It was a good fit from the start, the Coopers said, adding that the Odd Fellows were great to work with.

At the time, 5,500 square feet of the ground level of the building seemed a lot to fill. The Coopers worked with 30 antique dealers who rented space within their antique mall, and the Coopers filled the rest with items they would bring in from outside the area. That was their secret.

“We wanted to bring in only new items that people had never seen,” said Jim.

The Coopers developed relationships with auction houses in the east and would bring trailerfuls of antiques back to Idaho to sell.

Over the years the number of dealers renting space in their store dwindled to about 10, until about 75 percent of the store were items the Coopers had brought in.

Jewelry, coins, military items, knives, and furniture were all big sellers over the years.

People came to Park Avenue Antique Mall to see the Coopers, especially Jeanne, who had quit banking to work at their business full time.

Jim said Jeanne has always been good with people, which is why people feel comfortable at Park Avenue and they get so much repeat business.

With Jim’s business savvy, the two have been a winning combination.

They have also worked with many amazing dealers and employees over the years, they said, who added a lot to their business. People also came in to see their dogs, Missy and Molly, who became the sort of mascots of the store.

“Missy sold our first piece,” Jim said.

The dogs died a few years ago.

They have had a lot of local regulars, Jeanne said, who tell them that they are a staple of the downtown Idaho Falls scene. But Park Avenue Antique Mall also became famous to many outside the area, too.

Antique hounds who came from across the country to visit Yellowstone make sure to stop at Park Avenue Antique Mall on their way through.

“We have had a lot of memories,” Jeanne said.

Antique dealers from Utah to New Mexico also have been regular buyers from the Coopers to sell in their own stores.

Park Avenue Antique Mall didn’t sell online, except for the one year they sold some items on eBay, which made for some interesting experiences.

The Coopers had an old Mickey and Minnie Mouse sled which they had found for $50 in Missouri. They listed it on eBay and the auction soared until the winning bidder hit $380. The buyer was a mega Disney collector and was very specific about shipping, which made the shipping cost almost as much as the item itself.

In the end, keeping up with shipping and online selling was too much — plus the Coopers prefer face-to-face with the public. That is where you build trust and relationships, they said.

After renting space at the IOOF for so long, the Coopers bought the building about two and a half years ago. The Coopers have enjoyed this antique business that sort of fell in their laps, but after 20 years in business they have decided it’s time to retire and close their antique store by the end of the month. Currently everything in the store is 30 percent off. Already quite a bit of merchandise is gone, and empty spots in the store are becoming apparent.

The future of the IOOF building

But once they close their doors on their business, they won’t actually stop working. That’s when renovations on the building will begin. Over the frigid winter, some pipes in the building froze, which caused leaks. Since the Coopers would need to pack up the store to fix those anyway, they decided it was time to close their antique shop and focus on the historic building itself.

Besides fixing pipes, they also have other renovation plans, including updating the ground floor with new carpet, paint, encasing the pillars, and generally just making everything look more original. Jim said there is an opportunity to separate the space into more than one retail area to rent out.

Upstairs still looks much like it did in the early 1900s, Jim explained. It has much of the old carpet and look and feel it did back then. The upstairs has a large Odd Fellows ceremony room, a large meeting room, a small women’s parlor, a small game room, and other rooms. Many of the Odd Fellows items, such as red velvet chairs, have been donated to the museum for a future display.

Upstairs, the Coopers will renovate anything that needs fixing and update the spaces while still keeping the original look and feel. The upstairs has 12-foot ceilings, and the rooms have big windows with lots of natural light and views of downtown, while being very quiet.

“This would be a perfect event center,” Jim said.

The historic building also has a basement, with original lava rock as the foundation, and high ceilings, which could possibly lend itself to future use as perhaps a unique restaurant. Stepping downstairs is like stepping into a different era.

“It’s so quiet and secluded down here,” Jim said. “There is a lot of history in this building.”

It is uncertain whether they will sell the building once it is renovated, or if they will keep it and lease it out to different businesses. To contact Jim or Jeanne, visit the store at 393 Park Avenue or call (208) 528-0472.