The Small Business Spotlight focuses on area businesses that have opened in the past three years in New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender counties.
 

How did you start Azalea Antiques & Art?

Townsend: “I officially opened Azalea Antiques & Art at the corner of 23rd and Castle Hayne Road in 2022. We purchased a store that was going out of business. It was an antique mall, and I like to say it was divine intervention that led me to this venture. I was passing by one day, saw the sign to say it was closing and two weeks later, I was writing the largest check of my life. A short time after that, I realized the building I was in was not the best for many reasons. So, I started looking for a new one.

“Just six months after opening, we closed for a month to move. We had taken that dying antique mall with 20 vendors and cultivated it up to 40 by that time. So, we all gathered up and moved out. … We have been in this beautiful building at 1502 N. 23rd St. now for two years. Our vendor count hovers around 60 at any given time.”
 

How did you catch the antique bug?

Townsend: “I got into antiques from a very early age. My parents had a knack for knowing quality and holding onto it. Meager means never stopped them from having the best. … Our world is full of a lot of the same kind of stuff right now. Vintage and antique goods have character, thought, painstakingly deliberated-over details and fanciful finishings. In an overly homogenized culture, they stand up and stand out.”
 
 

What do vendors sell at Azalea Antiques & Art?

Townsend: “Our vendors sell everything from little painted tobacco tins to 19th-century English mahogany sideboards. There have been things that are so beautiful they literally make me cry a little. That’s when I know it’s good. If I shed a tear, it’s a winner. Customers often have just as powerful of a visceral reaction. It’s a truly joyful experience just to admire something and then the opportunity to take it home and call it yours is there too.”
 
 

What are some popular antiques these days?

Townsend: “One of the hardest things that people are looking for right now is all the mid-century modern housewares – furniture too. The elusive swirly ceramic lamps with stretched fiberglass shades – they don’t last long. And make it one with two tiers and an atomic theme – well, that won’t last a week. I personally am fascinated by the atomic-age kind of motifs. Think George Jetson meets Frank Lloyd Wright. But honestly, it’s not my jam. I love the rich textures of the old world. My ‘thing’? I’m into anything that can measure the stars or navigate a journey. I just finally hunted down my first armillary sphere. It’s a cheapy little plastic thing from the ’70s, but the paper decals of the constellations are gorgeous. I look forward to finding the ultimate large metal version that can sit outside.”