Haupt's new home

Jerry Holt, Star Tribune

Deb Haupt, owner of Haupt Antiek Market, packed up items in her old store in Rosemount. The market will reopen with a “Funky Junque” sale July 16-19.

The renowned Haupt Antiek Market moves to Apple Valley.

By KATIE HUMPHREY, Star Tribune

Last update: June 30, 2009 - 11:19 PM

The antique sales started about 12 years ago in Deb and Greg Haupt's Eagan garage.

Six years ago, hoping to reclaim the garage, they rented an old house in downtown Rosemount, moved the goods there and opened Haupt Antiek Market.

Now, the monthly market that draws flocks of shoppers is on the move again. The Haupts will move into a building on 147th Street just west of Cedar Avenue in Apple Valley and reopen the market with a "Funky Junque" sale July 16 through July 19.

"I am so excited," Deb Haupt said.

The Rosemount house had "worked out wonderfully well" in recent years, she said, but the couple had to jump at the chance to buy their own space.

The two-story house and carriage house in Rosemount had a nice atmosphere but also presented some mobility problems that the new one-story space in Apple Valley will alleviate, she said.

"So many people could not go up and down the steps," Haupt said.

The Haupts and the other dealers who sell at the market are busy moving their treasures from one spot to the next. And she promises to "rustic it up" at the new location, removing the dropped ceiling and the carpet and adding decoration to give it some character.

She wants to hold onto the style of the European flea markets that inspired her family to get into the business to begin with. They travel to Europe annually and ship a train-car worth of buys back each year.

The treasures are sorted and the market's 15 vendors work together on decorating for each month's theme before the doors open for four days and shoppers, some of whom even take off work to make it on the first day, start streaming in.

The "Funky Junque" sale in July will feature lots of re-purposed vintage goods and generally off-the-wall stuff people can ponder in addition to the usual European finds. And there are more themes to come later in the year, including the "Barn Daze/Blue Ribbon Sale" in August, "Autumn Abundance" in October and "Visions of Christmas Past" in November.

"Each theme, we just add a little bit into it," Haupt said. "It really makes people want to come back and see what's new."

Kim Rayman of Burnsville is one of those shoppers. She heard about Haupt Antiek Market from a friend a couple of years ago and has been going each month since.

"You can find really unique things there," she said. Garden stakes made out of old silverware, stamped with letters and phrases, are among her favorite finds.

"I'm going to miss the old house and the carriage house because it had charm, but they've promised that they're going to make this building that way also," Rayman said.

Indeed, vendor Brenda Weber, whose offerings include jewelry made of typewriter keys and Rayman's favorite garden stakes, said the creative bunch will dive into each month's theme.

"By this fall we will make the shop warm and cozy it up with a farmer's harvest of pumpkins, mums and gourds that tie in so wonderfully with our antiques," she said.

Katie Humphrey • 952-882-9056

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