Editorial
Front Page - Friday, May 21, 2010
Bank Building estate sale puts a twist on location and “going green”
Erica Tuggle
Mary Jo Richie, Diane Mizell, Mary Bach and Sunny Wagoner (left to right) have spent the last month preparing for the Historical Bank Building Estate Sale by transforming the fourth floor of the building into a mock living area, pricing the items for sale and working to put the word out about the services Those Girls Inc. and Signal Art offers in appraising.
- Erica Tuggle
The ultimate recycling effort picked up success in the Historic Bank Building estate sale during Mother’s Day weekend. The appraisal group, Those Girls, Inc., consisting of Sunny Wagoner and Mary Joe Richie, teamed up with Darlene Brown, the owner of the historic Chattanooga Bank and Trust Building, and Diane Mizell, a fine arts appraiser for Signal Art, for this mother loded of a sale.
Those Girls do anywhere from four to six sales a year, they say. In this economy, it has been a challenging business, but their approach is to provide a happy atmosphere and attempt to take the personal aspect out of it, they say.
Wagoner says, “I think it really does provide a service. Some people think it’s kind of morbid, but these things have to go some place.”
Richie says it is the ultimate form of recycling, as they are not only aiding in the reuse and repurposing of items that would have otherwise gone to seed, but they are recycling entire lifestyles, too.
“It’s fun to see people use things for something else than what it was originally for. It’s not getting rid of something, it is giving it to someone who is going to love and appreciate it as much as you did,” she says.
A prime example is a corner cabinet featured in the sale that originally came out of a barn. It was covered with chicken excrement and had eggs laid in the drawers before it was cleaned up and purchased by a family in Kentucky. It was then purchased by a Chattanooga family before it found its way to Those Girls, and was bought by Mariah Mayfield, the owner of Shadowbox Paperie, who plans to refurbish it, use it in her shop as a display piece and make it available for sale.
Preparing the sale was no small feat in itself. Over a month ago, Wagoner and Richie began clearing out the fourth floor of the Bank Building and transforming it into a mock living area complete with kitchen, bedrooms, living room and other household rooms where the items from the eight families involved in the sale were sorted according to where the items would naturally be in a home. The fourth floor was originally office space, the women say, so all office furniture deemed worthy was sent to the third floor to be its own entity of the sale. The holdings of the eight families were compiled into this massive sale because most people don’t have enough to make a full house estate sale that brings more buyers out, Richie says.
“We fill it up and make it look like a home. It’s important to set things out like you would have a home set,” Richie says.
“If you had things in boxes,
people wouldn’t see the potential of it.”
The Chattanooga Bank Building was built in 1926 before the Depression hit, and has retained much of its original elegance making this for a unique place for the sale. The buyers of the sale could even reach the items through the shining brass doors of the old time hand operated elevator. The versatility of the third and fourth floor for the purposes of the sale shows the potential of the building Brown says.
In this estate sale you could take everything and the kitchen sink, as the building itself is up for sale. The Bank Building is currently under contract to be utilized as the future home of the Crowne Plaza Hotel, but since they are waiting on financing of this project, other offers are being entertained, Brown says.
Those Girls specialize in high-end estate sales for the area, but travel far and wide doing their appraisals, Wagoner says. They also must be reaccredited every five years and participate in ongoing education. Wagoner said it is better to work with a certified appraiser because their testimony stands up in court.
They say that God is always watching out for them during their sales, and are amazed at how quickly needs for certain rooms would be answered with a phone call that day. Brown says the pieces of the sale just fell into place for her as well since a portion of the items in the sale were from her mother’s estate and what she calls her “other life” estate sale.
“When you are trying to do that for yourself, you don’t always do the best job,” she says. “It’s emotional.”
The rush of any sale opening is familiar to bargain hunters, and any of the women can tell you the secret of finding must have items in these sales is being there first. The mechanical monkey with the protruding tongue or the Blue Ridge pottery didn’t last long in this sale, as they joined the rest in recycling lifestyles.
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