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History center sale blends the past and the future
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This early 1960s Allstate Vespa is for sale at the Northeast Georgia History Center’s Antique Show and Estate Sale Saturday. - photo by SARA GUEVARA
Antique Show and Estate Sale
When: Preview party, 6 p.m. Friday; sale and family events 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday
Where: Northeast Georgia History Center, 422 Academy St., Gainesville
How much: $25 for preview party, which includes an appraisal of one item; $5 per adult on Saturday, children 18 and younger and members are free, appraisals are $15 each item
More info: 770-297-5900

This weekend, you can own a piece of North Georgia history.

The annual Antique Show and Estate Sale at the Northeast Georgia History Center starts Friday evening with a preview party, followed on Saturday with a day of kid-friendly activities to go along with the antiques for sale inside the history center. For $5 for adults (free for members and children 18 and younger), guests can also tour the center’s exhibits, see a blacksmith demonstration and meet a confederate soldier.

The annual event is not only a fundraiser for the history center, but it also showcases unique items donated by members for the estate sale. An on-site appraiser, who will be at both the preview party and the main event, will be doing appraisals of items people bring in.
Tickets for the Friday preview are $25 and allow guests a sneak peek at the items for sale on Saturday. An appraisal of one item is included with the purchase of a ticket.

“You get to see the dealers in advance, you get a free appraisal from Richard Williams,” said Connie Propes, a member of the history center who is organizing the Friday event. “The people who come to the preview party, they have paid to come, so they get the benefit of seeing these things.”

On Saturday, the annual event includes something extra: Activities for all ages, making it more like one of the history center’s family day activities.

“It’s more geared to the family this year,” Propes said. “In addition to the dealers who are coming in, and the estate sale items that are going to be for sale, there is just a large number of stuff that’s going to be set up in the parking lot.”

Julie Carson, education and volunteer coordinator for the Northeast Georgia History Center, said there will be live demonstrations by members of the North Georgia Wood Carvers and the Georgia Handspinners, plus the center’s blacksmith, Dan Rado, will be firing up the coals in the cabin’s forge. There will be inflatable jumping toys, crafts and face painting for kids, a fire truck and a police car.

It’s a way for more people to see what the history center is all about.

“We’re hoping that parents with children will come and bring the children to have fun,” she said. “But also take some time to look at the estate sale and antique show. And come back again and again and again.”