After opening Engelberg Antiks in the morning, owners John and Nancy Forrest catch up with regular customers and wave through the windows at their downtown Salem neighbors.  Because they have sold at the store for over five years, and owned it for three, the couple knows the winding maze of vend ors by heart. They can find or return items lost in the mall with ease. Engelberg Antiks, located at 148 Liberty St. S.E., brags it’s the largest antique mall in Salem. Almost a week away from its 40 year anniversary, the mall remains one of the oldest businesses in downtown Salem. The 11,000 square foot mall is home to over 50 vendors who bring together “50 different ideas of what’s cool,” according to the couple, including dolls, jewelry, clothing, art and houseware. People can easily lose themselves in the mall, whether because of the roundabout layout or the large amount of marbles, Barbie dolls and lamps to look at. After 40 years in business, the mall stays popular in the community, especially among Willamette University students, who have had their graduation photos taken in the store, John Forrest said.  Customers browsing around Engelberg Antiks on Wednesday, March 19, 2025. (Madeleine Moore/Salem Reporter) Next Tuesday, April 1, Nancy and John Forrest are celebrating Engelberg’s 40th year in business. Although the mall is usually closed on Tuesdays, it will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. for a day of discounts, games and sweets. Engelberg Antiks’ popular Pokemon booth will also be hosting a spin the wheel event to hand out prizes. Local radio station KLSM will be broadcasting the event live, so even those who are not able to attend in person can catch the celebration. Becoming owners John Forrest, a former trucker, and Nancy Forrest, who grew up working different jobs in the area, never planned on becoming the owners of an antique store. The couple started doing yard and garage sales after a near-death experience left John Forrest unable to work for a couple of years.  In 2015, around a year into their relationship, he was driving a logging truck in Washington. During a break, several logs came loose. One rolled off the truck and knocked him face first into the ground. “It took me a second to realize I wasn’t dead … but in a second I was gonna be,” he said. A second log bounced over him and the third landed on his leg, pinning him to the ground. John Forrest came out of the incident with a broken thumb and a blown shoulder tendon. He wasn’t able to work for two years. As he started healing, he did small yard and garage sales to make some money and interact with people. The couple then started selling at a vendor mall in Turner and the Polk County Fairgrounds in Rickreall, before finding Engelberg Antiks in downtown Salem. They often picked and sold rocks and other things they liked, John Forrest said, but soon started selling things people liked more, like old signs and pocket knife collections. The couple made their way to a vendor booth at Engelberg Antiks, where they met the mall’s former owner Henrietta Dill, in late 2019. Dill originally planned to sell the mall to her son Hank before he died in August 2021. Shortly after Hank’s death, John and Nancy Forrest approached Dill about buying the mall and started the sale process. John and Nancy added conditions to the sale: pictures of Hank and Dill would hang in the store to honor them and they would get Dill’s lemon jello cake recipe. The couple still jokes that the mall’s sale hinged on a cake recipe. Dill died in early 2024, just short of the mall’s 39th anniversary. A large photo of her hangs behind the cash register by the front of the mall. After three years as owners, John and Nancy Forrest love what they do. For Nancy it’s a lifelong wish fulfilled. “I’ve always dreamed about owning my own business … I got married when I was 18, was married to my first husband for 20 some odd years. I just figured I was already on my path,” she said. “The dream came true … I didn’t know it would come true halfway through my life, but you just never know.” The couple doesn’t know exactly how long they’ll remain owners but plan to pass the mall on to someone else down the road. Both are caretakers for their mothers. They plan to eventually sell to a good owner and move to Indiana to be close to family. “We hope it’s here for at least another 40 years. It won’t be with us, but ideally … what we hope is that, you know, we can run it, build it, keep all the vendors successful,” John said. Advertisements for Engelberg Antiks’ 15th year anniversary in 2000 inside a scrapbook made by the mall’s founder Henrietta Dill. (Madeleine Moore/Salem Reporter) Contact reporter Madeleine Moore: madeleine@salemreporter.com. 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