If you love antiques, bargain hunting, looking for that special collectible item or just plain love the thrill of this whole experience, this is the place for you!
Located on the North Service Road, just off the Victoria Avenue exit of the QEW highway, there are two houses that can be seen – one an old Victorian mansion and both with the signs ‘ANTIQUES’ placed on them. It’s the Prudhommes Antique & Flea Market and even though it’s open all year round, you get to experience even more when you visit during the summer.
During the summer months, there are an additional 12 small outdoor cabins that are opened up which makes the atmosphere for visitors even more pleasant as the beautiful Lake Ontario can be seen in the background.
Driving into the market, you could see the vendors with their merchandise set up on the lawn. I must admit, I wasn’t really into antiques (as I get older, I’m starting to appreciate them more and more), but I was nevertheless so excited! I thought to myself, who knows what one will find in a place like this!
Prudhommes Antique Market is home to 25 vendors offering a wide selection of antiques & collectibles from furniture, glass, china, jewelry, tools, music-related items to vintage clothing and signs… and everything in between!
Some things were familiar while other things I’ve never seen before. Never seen before in real life that is.
I didn’t know where to start. I was all over the place! “I’ll go here first. Oh look! What’s that over there? Let’s check out that table first. Hey! I’ve seen that before… on that antiques show. Whatchamacallit… American Pickers! And Canadian Pickers!” It was terrible. I had to take a deep breath and calm down.
But before I continued on, with the outside, there was the smaller ‘Antiques’ house just to the right I had to check out first.
It contained plates, glasses, furnitures, figurines, pictures, jewelry and all kinds of other collectibles…
I wandered off behind one of the cabins. Hmmm… What’s that down yonder? Is that a sleigh?…
Prudhommes Antique & Flea Market was established in 1971 in Vineland, Ontario and is one of the province’s longest running year-round markets of its kind. You name it, they've got it in one form or another!
Hey! Is that a jack-in-the-box? Haven't seen one of those in a long time!
Some of the items I had no clue what they were. All I knew was, they were very, very old! The tag on the item below read:
“FARMER’S GRAIN BAG COUNTER – 1880s – VERY RARE – 125.00”
Very rare indeed! I could not find anything about it on Google! What the hell was it exactly?, I remember saying at the time. How was it used? Interesting.
Some sort of winch? With the original rope too? Cool!
The price tag on this baby carriage said $79. What a steal! Wish I had the money and the space to put it!
Signs, signs… everywhere signs…
Oooh! The mansion is in reach! It has always been in sight... but never in reach, lol.
Below is a partial view of the ‘front’ entrance, or rather what used to be the front entrance. A vendor who rented one of the rooms in the mansion told me this used to be the front entrance leading out to a road! I couldn’t believe it!
Fascinating when you consider what it leads out to now – Lake Ontario:
Nope! No road here. Just good ol’ Lake Ontario.
There is so little information to be found on this Victorian mansion. Actually, I couldn’t find anything; when it was built, who owned it, or even what it looked like when it was first built. So disappointing.
I was so fascinated with it and wished I could have learnt more.
Side view:
The other side:
The ‘real’ front entrance, or the entrance that is first seen when you enter the market:
So are we ready to see what’s inside? C’mon then!
Folks, stepping into that mansion was like stepping back in time from the moment you walked in!
There were rooms after rooms after rooms of stuff everywhere!
One of more entertaining rooms had a train going along the ceiling:
Just when we thought we’d seen everything, there was the ‘Door to the Attic‘ sign on lime green paper that could be seen. There was more?
Yes there was!
We've already been looking around close to over an hour-and-a-half, but we couldn’t leave until we seen what was in the attic.
They weren’t kiddin’ folks. There was definitely MORE in the attic!
From inside the attic looking out:
There are tons more photos but just too many to add here - but you get the picture! Overall, it was awesome experience and I can't wait to go back again next year! Check it out when you can!
Address:
Prudhommes Antique Market
3319 North Service Road
Vineland Station, Ontario
L0R 2E0 Municipality Town of Lincoln
Telephone
(905) 562-5187
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