About
Doug
Schmitt
Antiques
Doug's first love of old
things was antique motorcycles. Way back in the 60's and early 70's he enjoyed
restoring old Harleys. He always enjoyed fixing up things that were in bad
shape and had the potential of looking great once they were restored. In
the early 70's while working in a band in Aspen, Colorado he became intrigued by
all of the terrific looking Victorian houses that had been nicely restored and
the wild looking antique furniture. It was during this time that Doug and his
wife Vickie purchased a house in Salt Lake City, Utah that was built in 1865.
The house had great woodwork in it and had transoms over every door, but were missing
the glass. Doug decided to replace the empty transoms with stained glass and
proceeded to learn how to do the work. After moving back to Pennsylvania in
1979 Doug began to make leaded glass windows for people and shortly there after
he met a guy from Texas who dealt in antiques on the side. Doug mentioned to
him that the two of them should open up a shop together selling his friend's
antiques and Doug's stained glass windows. Several days later Doug's friend
said that he had put his name on a waiting list at an antique mall and had
been called and offered a spot. He called Doug and asked him if he wanted to go
in on that with him. Doug agreed and gradually started working on furniture and
began picking the brains of a lot of different furniture people and eventually
developed the techniques that he uses today along with his son Tony. After
working part-time in his garage for 4 years, Doug decided to quit
his day job as a salesman and do the antique business full time. After about a
year he built his first shop behind their house. It wasn't too many years after
that that he outgrew the shop and began looking for a much larger place. In
1990 he purchased an old saw mill that was built around 1915. Over the next five
years Doug poured money into restoring the building.
Doug's son Tony started helping his dad at the antique shows at the age of
nine. That was 24 years ago. After spending 4 years at Penn State in electrical
engineering, he informed his dad that he wanted to become an antique dealer and
furniture restorer. Eleven years have passed since then and Doug and his son
Tony are still at it restoring fine quality antique furniture. Tony has
evolved into a fine woodworker and uses his electrical and computer expertise in
running the business web site. Doug and Tony have always been committed to
doing the best restoration job possible and have never strayed from what Doug
calls "the German Curse" of having to do everything very precise. As the years
have rolled by, Doug sold the family house and put a large apartment in the
sawmill building and Tony and his family have put a house next to the shop. Now
Tony has his own 4-year old son named Hunter who may
end up continuing the family tradition of furniture restoration someday.
Our shop is open by chance or appointment. During the week we can be found
working on furniture just about everyday. Around 20 weekends a year and
sometimes all week, we are out on the road doing antique shows throughout the
Eastern United States.
Doug Schmitt Antiques "Historical Photo Gallery"