Less than two weeks after a massive fire destroyed Tollbooth Antiques’ main warehouse, the vendor marketplace has begun welcoming customers back.

Even with most of Tollbooth’s main building still a burnt-out brick shell, some vendors set up their shops in an adjacent warehouse previously used for storage. For Tollbooth Antiques co-owner David Doolittle, the Monday opening of the 10,000-square-foot Second Street Warehouse, is tangible proof – to vendors, customers and the community – that Tollbooth has indeed survived the July 18 fire.

“It was a decision we had to make right away. We felt like if we didn’t, we would lose momentum,” said Doolittle, who noted that since the fire many people have been talking about Tollbooth in the past tense. “We needed to get a presence.”

In addition to helping some vendors, employees and customers, Doolittle said the reopening of even a slimmed down Tollbooth Antiques with about 20 of the previous 50 vendors helps maintain the momentum of Columbia as a destination for antiquing.

“There’s no doubt that Columbia is becoming an antiques destination. Not just antiques, but arts and crafts,” he said.

Doolittle was one of the early promoters of antiquing in Columbia which he said has been a great way to reuse the large, brick tobacco warehouses and factories that are a testament to Columbia’s history as an industrial center. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, factories in town produced silk, textiles, stoves and machinery while iron furnaces between Columbia and Marietta churned out so much pig iron the area was dubbed “Little Pittsburgh.”

“Because Columbia wasn’t redeveloped, the buildings weren’t redeveloped,” said Doolittle, who opened Tollbooth in 2011 with his wife Sue in a former Kahn-Lucas Manufacturing factory. “These buildings sat here and all at once everybody realized there was a use for them, which ended up being antiques.”

One local investor cheering on the Doolittles is Don Murphy, who has bought and redeveloped multiple properties in downtown Columbia, including Hinkles Restaurant. Two years ago Murphy bought Burning Bridge Antiques, a large antiques market at 304 Walnut St. in Columbia that Doolittle helped open in 2005.

“Columbia is one big antiques store – it’s just spread out over several buildings,” Murphy said. “We’re very fortunate to have this in Columbia. And it is key to our revitalization. Otherwise, you’d have a number of empty, run-down businesses and I don’t know what would be occupying those buildings right now.”

Ron Madar, who helped open Rivertown Antiques 20 years ago at 125 Bank Ave., said he’s seen strong growth in antiquing since then.

“People are coming to Columbia as a destination for antiques, and that’s a good thing,” Madar said.

A hidden gem

As it opens to retail customers, the Second Street Warehouse is losing its metal siding, work that was revealing the brick façade as well as the large pane windows that were letting in new light and a fresh breeze early Monday morning.

“It offers a visual connection to the river that is pretty neat,” said Doolittle as he stood in front of the newly uncovered windows. “We revealed a hidden gem.”

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The new view from the Second Street Warehouse to the Susquehanna River and the Veterans Memorial Bridge gives Doolittle a clear line of sight to the spot where 20 years ago he had hoped to build an 18-story high rise. It was that project’s expected impact on nearby property values that prompted Doolittle to begin buying vacant buildings around Columbia that had previously been put to industrial use.

“When I came to Columbia, my goal was to build a high-rise,” he said. “As time went on, we fell in love with the antiques business, and we decided to pull back and sell those properties to other developers.“

Doolittle, who grew up in Manor Township, developed the Jake & Amos brand of canned goods. Proceeds from the sale of that company helped with Doolittle’s development efforts in Columbia, which began with his plan for a riverside tower, and then continued with his purchases of other Columbia properties.

Now that the Tollbooth property is the extent of their Columbia real estate holdings, the Doolittles are juggling space in the complex to come up with the same amount of vendor space they had before the fire.

“We’re going to get it back. It’s just going to take some time and perseverance,” Doolittle said.

The Second Street Warehouse at 207 Chestnut St. is across a part of the U-shaped buildings that is Tollbooth’s main complex. Directly across the parking lot is the main Tollbooth building at 215 Chestnut St. with its checked brick and large pane windows that was largely spared from the fire. Connected to the main building is a two-story warehouse at 229 N. Second St. with 20,000-square feet of vendor space that was completely destroyed by the fire.

While Doolittle didn’t completely rule out eventually building something there, the short-term plan is to tear down that building and make it a parking lot. Insurance on the building only covered its actual value, not its replacement value, which means there wouldn’t be enough insurance proceeds to fund a full rebuild, he explained.

The main warehouse building, which largely survived the fire, only had vendors on its first floor although that 10,000-square-foot space has been emptied since the entire building will need extensive repairs. The rebuilding work will also likely have a sprinkler system, even if it is not required, Doolittle said.

By the end of the year, Doolittle hopes to be back inside that main building and also utilize its second floor. With the new Second Street Warehouse and vendor space on the second floor of the main building, Tollbooth would once again have roughly 30,000 square feet of vendor space at its main complex. Tollbooth also has a 10,000-square-foot building at 182 Front St. that has mainly been a lumber center but since the fire has begun hosting some vendors.

“We were kind of hoping to retire before this happened, but now we’re motivated to keep going,” Doolittle said. “It’s really been a blessing for us and our vendors that we have somewhere where we can get consolidated and continue to operate.”

Restocking, reopening

In a side room in the newly opened Second Street Warehouse, Deb Pizzola was setting up furniture, pictures and small housewares Monday that had been in storage at her Elizabethtown home or kept in a trailer. The rest of their merchandise—valued at around $200,000 – was completely destroyed in the fire.

“I love it so much that I don’t want to give it up. I want to keep going and rebuild,” said Pizzola, who said she actually made two sales Sunday to customers who wandered in before the space officially opened Monday at noon. The warehouse will be open daily from noon to 5 p.m.

Pizzola, who runs her Antique Freaks business with her son and daughter, was one of only four of Tollbooth’s 50 vendors who had any kind of insurance, although Pizzola said it won’t cover even half her loss.

“I didn’t buy enough (insurance). But it’s something. It’s going to help,” said Pizzola, who plans to immediately begin buying more to restock. “Funds are a little low until insurance kicks in.”

Vicki Brodfuehrer doesn’t plan to immediately restock and reopen the stand she had at the market, saying that as one of Tollbooth’s handful of employees, she’s been busy enough with just helping get things going again.

“I lost everything, but not as much as some other people, she said.

Brodfuehrer said that since the fire, she’s been touched by the kindness and supporting message of people in the community and is thrilled to be able to welcome some vendors, as well as some customers, back in.

“I’m thankful that they have this space,” she said. “When you hear of a fire, you think it is the end.

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