Old Goods Bringing New Life to Gilbertsville Shops

By TERESA WINCHESTER
GILBERTSVILLE

Things are springing up in Gilbertsville, giving a welcomed boost to business life in the tranquil Butternut Valley village, home to 308 residents. Two endeavors dealing with antique, vintage or used goods will be opening their doors soon—Patina House and the Olde Stonehouse Emporium. Both promise to complement each other as well as the work that Five Kids Bakehouse has already done to establish a destination business for the area.

On the weekend of April 18 and 19, Jenna Haefelin and Craig Erigo were busy arranging their wares in a capacious store space of the Gilbert Block which has gone unoccupied for some three years. Haefelin and Erigo, who have a shared passion for antiques, design, and giving beautiful old things a second life, have dubbed their new establishment Patina House because of their love for patina on vintage and antique items.

“It’s quick and simple and incorporates those concepts,” Haefelin said regarding the store’s name.

The store will offer antique and vintage furniture and décor, as well as custom lighting for light fixtures and possibly architectural salvage.

The couple live in Westchester, where they are restoring a barn built in the late 18th or early 19th century for their home. They discovered Gilbertsville and the Gilbert Block’s available space while visiting Erigo’s parents, Fran and Stella Erigo, who have lived in Gilbertsville since 2016.

The Gilbert Block itself is a Neo-Tudor-style structure designed by Boston architect Henry Forbes Bigelow and built between 1893 and 1895. It features three two-story, attached, brick commercial spaces and is owned by the Village Improvement Society of Gilbertsville.

“We’ve been dreaming of opening a shop for some time, and when we saw this space, we knew instantly it was perfect. It has incredible charm and our goal is to simply spruce it up, bring out its original character and fill it with carefully sourced vintage and antique treasures,” said Haefelin, who operates SPIFF, a home-organizing business dedicated to sustainable home organization through eliminating plastics and curating earth-conscious materials.

According to SPIFF’s website (spifforganizing.com), “Her distinctive approach quickly gained recognition, attracting a discreet clientele of A-list celebrities, professional athletes, and design-forward families. Jenna’s work has been featured in ‘Forbes,’ ‘Bravo,’ ‘People,’ ‘US Magazine,’ ‘Insider,’ ‘Apartment Therapy’ and more.”

Erigo, who works for a utility company in Westchester and New York City, is especially interested in lighting.

“We will have custom lighting. Customers will be able to shop ā la carte. They can choose what they want for a base and what they want for a shade. If they have something in mind that they want, we will work with them to find it,” he said.

The couple say that they are not “just looking for a shop.”

“We want to create a space where the building’s history and our love for vintage come together in a way that feels special for everyone who visits,” said Haefelin.

Part of making the Patina House a special space for the community would be, according to Haefelin and Erigo, hosting private events such as bridal and baby showers, community get-togethers and more. They also foresee organizing workshops such as flower arranging, wreath-making, caning, knitting and crocheting.

“We’re open to many more ideas from the community on these workshops,” Haefelin said.

With the opening of Patina House, there is an element of things coming full circle. Haefelin’s grandmother sold antiques and from 1970-1990, Dora Miller, Margo Albanese, and Helen Clineman—grandmother, mother and aunt respectively to Cece Rowe (current executive director of the Major’s Inn Foundation)—operated Valley View Antiques in the Gilbert Block. The former antique store started out in the middle space and later moved to the current location of Patina House.

A soft-opening for Patina House is planned for Memorial Day weekend, with the hope of regular operations beginning June 1. Current plans are to operate Tuesday through Sunday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Hours of operation, especially winter hours, are not yet firm, however.

“We need to see how much traffic we create, how things go,” said Erigo.

Patina House will complement the Olde Stonehouse Emporium, an existing establishment at 128 Marion Avenue. Tracie Martinetti, who until recently sold goods at the Green Giraffe in Unadilla, will be stepping in to help care for and reimagine the space originally created by Kate Banta, who transformed the stone and board-and-batten structure beside her 19th-century stone house into the Emporium in 2014.

“It’s a familiar space with a fresh touch—a whimsical new chapter in Gilbertsville,” said Martinetti, who describes herself as a “creator of whimsey.”

Martinetti sees more cooperation than competition between the two establishments. The Emporium and Patina plan to promote each other, along with the Major’s Inn gift shop, which also offers antique and vintage items.

“It’s good when people can come to a destination with more than one thing to do or see,” said Martinetti.

The Olde Stonehouse Emporium features a wide array of vintage and repurposed pieces, including furniture, home décor, housewares, jewelry, paintings, and much more. Products exclusively made by local artists—pottery by Esperanza Roncero, Jennifer Kemper and Kelly Drumgoole will be available, as well as candles made by Tammy Retz. Martinetti also plans to frame and sell vintage postcards of local landmarks and an editorial from a local newspaper, written by former Butternuts Town Justice David L. Coster, protesting the eminent inundation of Gilbertsville by the Army Corps of Engineers—a project which met with great resistance and was never carried out.

“Plans are also underway for small, hands-on classes—stitching, painting or something new. The idea is to bring people together in a simple, approachable way,” Martinetti said.

The structure itself, built in the 19th century, is appropriate for Martinetti’s numerous vintage offerings. During the 1870s and 1880s, it functioned as a small carriage factory. It also served as a cabinet maker’s shop, and the Butternuts Brass Band practiced upstairs during the latter half of the 1800s.

Martinetti grew up in Lichfield (Staffordshire), England, where she attended art school. She is a 35-year resident of New York State. From 2008-2010 she operated “The Tearoom” in Main Street Nursery, Huntington, Long Island, where she organized activities such as high teas, children’s birthday parties, and baby and wedding showers. She also taught art at Cold Spring Harbor Labs. She moved to Gilbertsville with her husband, Chris Kaylor, in 2021.

“Gilbertsville reminds me of home,” she said.

Martinetti’s Olde Stonehouse Emporium grand opening will be on April 30. Operating hours will be Thursday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Martinetti will also be open some late nights during the summer.