Today we’d like to introduce you to Jimmy Poss.
Jimmy, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I’ve always liked antiques and architectural pieces since I was a teenager. I originally got interested in salvaging house parts around 30 years ago while renovating older Victorian homes in Athens. Couldn’t find authentic pieces to repair with is what got me interested in salvaging. We’ve moved older homes to new sites dismantled log structures and rebuilt them and collected a good bit of architectural pieces in the process.
I moved to Carlton 20 years ago and purchased a single building to store my budding inventory. I slowly added buildings and lots of “stuff”. After about three years she says to me ” either you start selling some of this or open up a museum. Well… we compromised and when you come now to visit you’ll find 5 historical buildings with 10,000 sq ft full items that will take you back in time!
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It’s had some bumps… Securing the buildings was probably the hardest. Historical buildings aren’t the easiest to purchase but thanks to a banker that believed In us…. here we are today. Locating 20 miles from the nearest city also took some time to develop a customer base. Carlton, population 201-205 (depending on who’s missing or in jail) did not offer a huge amount of walk-in traffic.
Also, the maintenance of 120-year-old buildings has had its trials but we now have good roofs and that’s major. The actual taking down and dismantling of the structures themselves is quite a task in itself! We don’t use chainsaws or backhoes to cut or knock the buildings down… every board is removed piece by piece. Deconstructing this way allows us to actually use everything, excluding rotten boards, and we can truly say that very little goes into the landfill!
Another huge problem we’ve just encountered is being “by-passed”. Have been preparing for it for quite some time but it’s still a very big deal. This leads me to share with you a quite interesting, frustrating, awakening and new chapter in my life. It’s called Social Media! 3 years ago I still had a “flip phone”, did not want to change, be involved in or have any part of the “new technology”. Oops… Thankfully I had some younger, very good customers, friends @3porchfarm that were adamant that I”get with it!”.
Our business is a hands-on, touch it, feel it kind of experience and I really didn’t want to lose the one on one contact that we had developed by selling online. They tried once, I said no…6 months later Mandy comes to the store and says “Poss I’m hooking you up today”. I gave in and a whole new world opened up for us. Suffice it to say it has probably been the best advertising other than word of mouth that we could hope for. IG & FB will help us with being ” by-passed” and. I’ll be forever grateful for my younger heroes.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
We take down old structures that are in disrepair and sadly buildings that are going to be demolished or fall under that awful term of “eminent domain ” The business has really grown into a wide variety of antique and vintage areas over the years, the latest has been a vintage bookstore, with a large amount of GA. History, almost 3000sqft of true vintage clothes and the latest addition is an art gallery.
Architectural salvage and heart pine items were our mainstays for years but I suppose that it comprises about 50% now. A few of the things that we feel proud of is the opportunity to pass on to the younger folks a place where they can really see pieces of history and touch and handle them. Also, the fact that we don’t have any consignment or “booth” space in our store makes a huge difference. We can explain everything in the store…. give its history, use, age and how most of how it was made.
What were you like growing up?
I grew up in south Ga. Played all the sports thru high school, I suppose I was outgoing, and always liked growing plants. then came to Athens to go to the University and majored in Landscape Architecture and Horticulture. My dad was in the irrigation business, back then there were mechanical ditch diggers but no mechanical ditch “covered uppers ” guess what I was! Anyway, always have enjoyed plants nature, being outside and talking to folks that talk with you not ” at you”. The thrill of the hunt (picking), developing friendships with folks of like ideals and actually being able to rescue things that are slowly disappearing really means a lot.
We have a very unique friend that allows us to visit whenever we can get away and go to his island on the Ga. coast to simply get away. This is probably the most special gift that that has come our way since we’ve had the store. It’s off the grid, has to water from a windmill, loads of animals and 2 canoes! All due to a fellow looking for blacksmithing tools and cast iron cookware. So, so grateful.
Locally any free time we have now we spend on the rivers looking for pottery and points.
Contact Info:
- Address: 5775 Hwy 72e. Carlton Ga 30627
- Phone: 706-797-3317
- Email: doofninny@gmail.com
- Instagram: _neatpiecesantiques
- Facebook: Neat Pieces Antiques .com
Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
