David and Alisa Doty opened Days of Old Antique Shoppe in 2016 with a simple model: rather than curating a single house inventory, the shop provides a quality storefront where individual vendors can showcase their own wares under one roof in Columbus, Indiana. That vendor mall structure means the shop’s floor is really a collection of many small businesses at once, each dealer bringing their own specialty, whether that leans toward furniture, glassware, vintage advertising, tools, or collectibles, so the overall mix on any given day reflects whatever that rotating group of vendors currently has on display.
Columbus itself adds an unusual backdrop for an antique shop. The city, seat of Bartholomew County in south central Indiana, is internationally known for its modern architecture, having been ranked among the top cities in the country for architectural innovation and design thanks to buildings from architects like Eero Saarinen and I. M. Pei scattered through its downtown. Visitors who come to Columbus for an architecture tour or a look at the city’s landmark churches and public buildings often find Days of Old a natural add on stop, pairing a look at mid century design with a chance to dig through decades of antiques and vintage finds from local vendors just a short drive from downtown.
For both collectors and casual browsers, the shop’s format is worth understanding before a visit. Since each vendor manages their own space and pricing, the same booth might carry oak furniture and vintage tools one month and shift toward glassware or textiles the next as that vendor’s own stock turns over. Shoppers looking for a particular item, whether a specific style of furniture, a category of glassware, or a type of collectible, are generally better off asking directly what current vendors have on hand rather than assuming a piece seen in a photo or on a past visit will still be available, since a multi vendor shop does not run off one centralized, unchanging inventory list.
That vendor based structure is also what gives Days of Old its founding purpose. David and Alisa Doty built the shop specifically to give area dealers, many of whom might otherwise sell only at fairs, markets, or online, a consistent physical storefront where they can display and sell their wares to walk in traffic throughout the week. For the antique dealers themselves, that means steady exposure without needing their own separate retail location; for shoppers, it means one stop with a built in variety that a single dealer’s shop could not match on its own.
For anyone exploring Columbus, Indiana beyond its well known architecture, Days of Old Antique Shoppe offers a multi vendor antique mall founded in 2016 by David and Alisa Doty, giving local collectors and visiting architecture tourists alike a rotating, dealer driven mix of antiques and vintage finds worth a stop on any trip through Bartholomew County.
