By Karen Welch — Senior Content Producer
You can take a look inside one of Amarillo’s most visible old warehouses and shop at the same time by visiting Polk Street Warehouse Co. on a flea market day.
Father-son duo Marlin and Chad Conner and their wives, Reba and Joy, bought the five-story historical building at 99 South Polk Street and are operating a slate of related businesses there.
Vendors sell a mix of antiques and collectibles from booths on the building’s main floor.
But the Connor Family is filling the rest of the 45,000-square-foot building by offering to host on-site estate sales, with storage available, and renting storage spaces on a monthly basis.
That last activity ties back into the building's history. It was a fireproof storage business in the 1950s, according to the Polk Street Warehouse website.
The warehouse actually was constructed in the 1920s as Amarillo Ice House.
Polk Street Warehouse strives to ensure its vendors sell vintage items. Ninety percent of the items in any booth must be at least 35 years old, the website said.
On a recent visit, my husband and I bought a 1930s cookie jar and a pair of bookends from the 1950s, according to our subsequent research.
As of now, the next planned flea market weekends include July 28-29 and Sept. 1-2. Consult Polk Street Warehouse's Facebook page or website because market days are occasional.
Karen Welch is a senior content producer for Panhandle PBS. She can be contacted at Karen.Welch@actx.edu, at @KWelch806 on Twitter and at www.facebook.com/karensmithwelch on Facebook.
