Long before Raccoon Forks Trading Company sold a single antique, its building at 621 Des Moines Street was already telling a story about how the city moved goods and people. Built in 1920 in the northeast corner of what is now Des Moines’ East Village, the structure first served as a warehouse for the Railway Express Agency, which used horse-drawn carts to collect and deliver parcels to train stations across central Iowa; the building was even constructed on a steep incline specifically so horses could access the rear garage doors with ease. When horse-drawn transport fell out of fashion, Railway Express sold the building in 1928 to Northland Dairy Co, which also relied on horses well into the 20th century and used the space until 1960, when it passed to Plain Talk Printing Co, a business whose name lives on today through Plain Talk Books and Coffee at East 6th and Grand Avenue.
That layered history is part of what current owners have built on since Raccoon Forks Trading Company first opened its doors in 2009, moving into this specific building in 2015 after a few earlier stops around East Village and downtown Des Moines. The shop takes its name from an old term for the point where the Des Moines River and Raccoon River converge near Principal Park, the original site of the city’s founding settlement, tying the business directly to the same geography that shaped Des Moines itself. Inside, shoppers find a well-curated mix of antiques, vintage furniture, vinyl records, jewelry, and collectibles, all displayed with an eye toward the kind of creative, attractive presentation that has helped the shop earn recognition as one of the top-rated antique stores in the city for two consecutive years running.
Raccoon Forks has grown alongside its neighborhood. East Village has become one of Des Moines’ most walkable shopping and dining districts, and the shop’s location near Principal Park puts it within reach of both longtime collectors and newer residents discovering antiquing for the first time. The business has since expanded with a second location at 1961 Indianola Ave, open Thursday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m, converting a former Italian American community center into additional warehouse and showroom space to accommodate more inventory than the original East Village building could hold on its own.
What makes a visit memorable is the combination of genuine historical character and carefully sourced merchandise. Rather than functioning as a generic flea market, Raccoon Forks positions itself as an authentic antique store devoted to high-quality, hard-to-find pieces, a distinction that shows in both the vinyl record bins and the furniture selection. Visitors researching the building’s past can feel the weight of a century of central Iowa commerce in the same space where they are shopping for a mid-century side table or a stack of original pressing records.
Raccoon Forks Trading Company can be reached at 515-809-1715, and both East Village locations welcome walk-in browsing throughout the week. For anyone exploring Des Moines’ antique scene, a stop here offers more than merchandise; it offers a direct link to the transportation, dairy, and printing industries that once defined this corner of the city. Raccoon Forks Trading Company is an East Village antique store in a converted 1920s warehouse, known for its curated vinyl, furniture, and collectibles and for its ties to Des Moines’ founding history at the actual raccoon forks of the Des Moines and Raccoon rivers.
