A young man knocked on the window of the Loop Exchange at 47 Bruckner Boulevard, where an Empire chair sits near a scroll-armed bench. When Myrna Rodriguez-Saunders opened the door, the man asked, "Are you the antique store?"
She smiled. "What can I help you with?"
"I got a clock, an antique clock," he said.
"Go to the lady down the street, about four doors down," she said. "She can help you."
The Loop Exchange is one of a half-dozen antique dealers that has helped revitalize a once-blighted strip of abandoned storefronts on Bruckner Boulevard between Willis and Alexander Avenues in Port Morris. Low rents drew the dealers to the area.
Recognizing the potential for renewal that the growing antique market offered, the city began making improvements to the area in 1989, moving wires and poles behind the buildings and lining the street with trees. City officials say they also intend to replace the concrete sidewalk with brick, and put in benches and antique street lamps.
"Everything was vacant [in 1980], but store by store it began filling up and it has turned the neighborhood around," said Lou Newkirk, the owner of Bruckner Antiques. "It used to be so dirty, sanitation wouldn't come around."
Word-of-mouth brings antique devotees from as far away as Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. In Port Morris they can find a square grand piano from 1864 and a 1955 ®MDUL¯®MDNM¯``Handbook of Pediatric®MDUL¯®MDNM¯s.'' The stores are crammed with thousands of items dating back to the 19th century -- wooden tables, chairs, desks, bureaus, sofas, chandeliers, tea sets, china, vases, cuckoo clocks and toys.
Newkirk was the first to move to the neighborhood, in 1979. The sign outside his store reads, "We buy and sell anything old." After Newkirk, several others followed, establishing what has become known as Antique Row.
Rodriguez-Saunders, who owns the Loop Exchange, moved in 1980 after the rent in her Atlantic Avenue store in Brooklyn nearly tripled to $1,200.
"I would love to be in Soho, but the rent is so damn high," said Grace Woods, of Amazin' Grace Inc., at 37 Bruckner Blvd. "$5,000 to $10,000 in rent is nothing down there." She refused to say how much she paid now, but said rents in Soho are double or triple those in Port Morris.
Shopkeepers like the location because the area is easily accessible by train, bus or car. The strip can be seen from the Major Deegan and Bruckner expressways, both highly traveled routes into Manhattan from the north. And Bruckner Boulevard leads right to the Third Avenue Bridge.
Rodriguez-Saunders said the block has 18 storefronts, of which a handful are still vacant. An art gallery, florist and grocer already share the block, and Rodriguez-Saunders hopes the rest of the storefronts will fill soon.
"If you're driving down a road and see one store, or if you're driving down the street and see 10 stores, which one are you going to stop on?" she asked.