A gambrel-roofed dairy barn built around 1919 still stands in Lowell, Indiana, and rather than falling into disrepair, it now houses The Flying Dutchgirl, an antiques store and gift shop that has turned the century-old structure into one of Lake County’s more distinctive shopping destinations. The barn itself is part of the draw. Restoration work has been ongoing, and the business recently opened its second floor to customers, effectively doubling the space available for browsing and giving shoppers a reason to explore both levels of the original farm building rather than a single ground-floor showroom.
The inventory spans an unusually wide range of categories for a single shop. Harley-Davidson memorabilia and collectibles sit alongside vintage industrial lighting, including porcelain pendant fixtures and barn lights, while other sections of the barn hold automotive parts, tools and hardware, and toys. Paper collectors will find books, magazines, maps, atlases, postcards, and greeting cards, while militaria, primitives, and pottery, glass, and ceramics round out a selection that resists easy categorization, farmtiques and eclectic finds pulled from farms, estates, and collections across the region. Prices range from budget items under 15 dollars up to premium vintage lighting pieces that can run past 300 dollars, giving the shop a spread that works for casual browsers and serious collectors chasing a specific piece.
One especially distinctive feature is the shop’s Molenaar Archive, a dedicated section that appears to be tied to local and family history, the kind of curated collection that goes beyond generic secondhand stock and gives the barn a sense of place rather than just inventory. The shop’s own messaging describes an ongoing effort to upload its massive collection online, encouraging repeat visits and repeat online browsing since new pieces continue to surface as the barn’s inventory gets documented and photographed. That means both in-person shoppers and online browsers are encouraged to check back often, since what is available today may be replaced by something new pulled from the collection next week.
Lowell sits in Lake County in the northwest corner of Indiana, part of the Chicago metropolitan area’s outer ring, which gives the barn a customer base that draws from both small-town northwest Indiana and the wider Chicagoland region looking for a rural day trip built around antiquing. A restored dairy barn full of Harley memorabilia, vintage lighting, and farm-era ephemera is not the kind of shopping experience easily replicated at a mall, and that novelty, paired with the ongoing restoration story, gives regulars a reason to return and see how both the building and the inventory keep evolving.
Visitors can shop the collection in person at the barn or browse online through the shop’s own website, and because the business continues restoration work on a century-old structure, checking current hours before a visit is worthwhile. For anyone in northwest Indiana chasing a specific category, from vintage lighting to militaria to Harley-Davidson collectibles, The Flying Dutchgirl offers a genuinely unusual setting to look. The Flying Dutchgirl – Barn Sales in Lowell, Indiana sells antiques, vintage lighting, automotive and farm ephemera, and collectibles from inside a restored 1919 dairy barn, with a dedicated Molenaar Archive section connecting the shop to local history.
