Renningers

Renningers Antique Mall in Mt. Dora is a huge, rambling affair located on over 100 acres located at the juncture of 441 and Lincoln Avenue in Mt. Dora, Florida. My wife and I went there to visit Fergus the Scotty, not necessarily to buy anything. As a consequence we barely saw any of mall, confining ourselves to the building where Fergus and his persons were located.

Being an engineer and an inveterate tinker it was luck (good or bad depending on who you ask) that I found The Hardware Man. This store occupied one end of a long low building, a building that also held many other antique sellers, including Fergus' persons. While The Hardware Man might sell antiques, the real value of this store is selling parts to fix other antiques. If you need a lock or hinge or other mechanical part to fix an antique, this is the place you come to.

The charm of such places are the memories they trigger when you slowly walk through their store. I know that the proprietors would prefer you purchase something, but I was very pleased they let me just window shop and take a series of photographs. Of course, in any situation on private property, it's always good to ask first.

I could have probably spent the entire day slowly looking and photographing, rather than the hour-and-a-half I did spend there. Perhaps I'll go back (I should go back, I will go back...) and look and photograph some more, and then move out from this building and see what the whole area holds. I'll be back up here anyway to also keep an eye on the restoration of the Convair CV-240, just south of this place on 441.

I didn't post the entire set of photographs. If you're interested in everything I took at Renningers, follow this link to my Flickr set.