Sara Garza started what would become Sheppard Street Antiques some twenty four years ago with little more than a small booth inside an antique mall, focused on vintage garden furnishings that most other dealers overlooked. That modest beginning eventually grew into a full service shop, and in 2016 the business moved from its namesake Sheppard Street location in Carytown to a larger space on North Arthur Ashe Boulevard in Richmond’s Scott’s Addition, a former industrial district that has become one of the city’s most active destinations for design, food, and drink. The shop kept its original name even after the move, a nod to where the business first took root, and today it operates from 1126 North Arthur Ashe Boulevard Tuesday through Saturday from ten in the morning until five in the evening, with appointments available for visitors who need to shop outside those hours.
Inside, the focus remains on vintage and vintage inspired furnishings for both home and garden, curated with what regular customers and local design professionals describe as an unusually discerning eye, including pieces that are genuinely difficult to track down anywhere else in the Richmond area. That reputation has carried the shop beyond retail customers and into hospitality: the boutique Quirk Hotel in downtown Richmond has specifically sourced pieces from Sheppard Street Antiques for its own property, a detail that speaks to the caliber and character of the inventory Sara and her team put on the floor. Shoppers who cannot make it in person can follow the shop’s active Instagram presence, where new acquisitions are posted as they arrive, giving regulars a way to spot something worth a special trip before it sells.
Part of what makes the shop feel like a genuine local institution rather than a rotating cast of anonymous vendors is its long tenured staff. Amanda has worked as a merchandising specialist for more than twenty years, shaping how the shop’s ever changing inventory gets displayed on the floor. Elisabeth, a vintage enthusiast with a particular affection for French pieces, has been with the business for nearly a decade. Mitchell brings both gardening expertise and antiques knowledge after almost twenty years with the company, a natural fit given the shop’s roots in vintage garden furnishings. Butch handles maintenance and installation and has been part of the team for close to fifteen years. Even deliveries carry a bit of the shop’s personality, made locally in a vintage Subaru Sambar van the staff affectionately call Sheppie, a nod once again to the original street name.
The shop has also honored a beloved presence of a different kind: a note on the business’s own materials remembers Lucy, who lived from 2010 to 2025 and is described by the staff as the real boss, the sort of detail that tells visitors this is a place built by people, not a franchise formula. Between its Scott’s Addition location, its long standing staff, and its history stretching back to a single garden furnishings booth, Sheppard Street Antiques has become a fixture of Richmond’s design and antiques community over more than two decades.
Sheppard Street Antiques is a Richmond, Virginia antiques and vintage furnishings shop, now in Scott’s Addition after starting in Carytown roughly twenty four years ago, known for a curated selection distinctive enough that the Quirk Hotel itself has sourced pieces from its floor.
