Antique Factory in ChambleeCourtesy of Antique Factory “Hey, check this out!” my husband said, holding up a tribal mask he’d found in the rows at Antique Factory in Chamblee. But he saw the tears coming down my face and asked if I was okay. “My grandma,” I told him. “I’m going to the c ar.” There, I sat in the passenger seat in silence, letting the wave of grief pass. I knew Chamblee’s Antique Row long before my husband discovered his love for it. I grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, and my family regularly traveled to Atlanta to visit relatives, shop, and—if I was lucky—visit the Georgia Aquarium and the World of Coca-Cola. But when my grandma came with us to Atlanta, my luck ran out. Don’t get me wrong: Mary Cheeks was my hero. She put together the coolest outfits, got me my first library card, and never had a problem speaking her mind. She was also the Queen of Thrifting, and whenever she joined our trips to Atlanta, my hopes for aquariums and soda tastings were replaced with the dismay of a long afternoon on Antique Row. The Antique Row District has anchored Chamblee’s downtown since the 1970s, when businesses selling Depression-era glass, midcentury furniture, and military memorabilia opened along Peachtree Road’s northernmost end. In 1979, the adjacent Broad Street Antique Mall joined the scene with eight booths; by the time my grandma dragged me there in the late ’90s, the mall had more than 200 dealers, and bargain hunters packed nearby shops such as Rust ‘n’ Dust and The Way We Were. The district’s popularity revived downtown Chamblee, but that same growth drove up booth fees, pushing out some longtime dealers. Others simply faded out as the next generation chose not to carry on the business. Stalwarts such as Rust ‘n’ Dust eventually disappeared, leaving behind a painted advertisement on the wall of what is now Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken. The author with her grandmother in 1993Courtesy of the author After my grandma passed away in 2022, I made that trip to Antique Row with my husband, thinking it would help me feel closer to her. I barely made it through one store before he had to take me home. But four years later, I came back. I had started working on keeping my grandmother’s memory alive by writing stories about her; this felt like the time to return to Antique Row. At The Treasure Mart, I fell back into childhood habits, pressing the buttons on every toy and music box to hear the sounds come to life. At Antique Factory, I joked with the owners about how I thought I’d escaped places like this, only to marry someone just as antiques-obsessed as my grandma. When I walked into The Way We Were, the blue house looked exactly how I remembered it. Outside, owner Susan Kelley told me about her mom opening the store around the same time her neighbors launched Blanton House and Rust ‘n’ Dust, creating the original Antique Row on Peachtree Road. As I nodded along, my mind went back to sitting impatiently on this same porch while my grandma talked with Susan’s mother as if they’d known each other for years.  I ended the day at Atlanta Vintage Books on Clairmont Road, where I found two baskets filled with old issues of Ebony and Jet. I picked up a couple, remembering how I would sit on my grandma’s lap while she read the celebrity gossip. I carried them to the counter. This time, I was smiling instead of crying. Antique Row may have changed over the years, but the spirit of Mary was still there. This article appears in our July 2026 issue. The post A love letter to Chamblee’s Antique Row appeared first on Atlanta Magazine. ...read more read less