At the corner of Old Stage Road and Swain Road in Center Lovell, Maine, Shoo Hale runs Four Cedars Antiques from the historic Jeremiah Chandler House, the centerpiece of what’s known locally as Four Cedar Farm. Tucked into the woods between stone walls at 168 Old Stage Road, the property gives the shop a genuinely picturesque, period-appropriate setting that matches the early American character of what fills its rooms.
The shop specializes in indoor and outdoor early American decorative pieces, with folk art, architectural salvage, garden ornaments, and country furniture forming the core of the collection. Because the shop operates out of a real historic house rather than a converted commercial space, browsing Four Cedars Antiques means moving through original period rooms, giving early American furniture and folk art a genuinely fitting backdrop rather than the more sterile setting of a typical retail storefront. Visitors are specifically invited to walk the grounds of the well-landscaped Four Cedar Farm after browsing indoors, extending the visit beyond the shop itself into the surrounding gardens and stonework that give the property its distinctive charm, particularly striking during Maine’s fall foliage season when the property sits amid vivid autumn color.
Four Cedars is one of three antique shops clustered in Center Lovell, alongside The Wonder Store and Doyle’s Antiques, giving visitors an unusually concentrated stretch of antiquing options for such a small Maine village. Local shopping guides specifically recommend treating Center Lovell’s antique row as a worthwhile stop, encouraging visitors to check all three shops in a single trip given how close together they sit along Route 5A. Like its neighboring shops, Four Cedars runs on a somewhat informal winter schedule, with owners generally happy to meet visitors by chance or by appointment during the colder months when tourist traffic slows.
The property’s restoration work, including a smaller structure on-site known as the Little House, has been documented and shared by the shop itself, reflecting an ongoing commitment to preserving the historic character of the Chandler House property alongside its retail antique operation. Center Lovell sits in western Maine’s lakes region, surrounded by mountains and ponds that draw visitors for outdoor recreation as much as antiquing, giving Four Cedars Antiques a built-in audience of travelers already exploring the area.
For anyone exploring western Maine’s Lovell area looking for early American antiques displayed in a genuinely historic house setting, Four Cedars Antiques offers an atmospheric, memorable stop. Four Cedars Antiques is an early American folk art and country furniture shop housed in the historic Jeremiah Chandler House at Four Cedar Farm in Center Lovell, Maine, owned by Shoo Hale and set among landscaped grounds visitors are invited to explore.
