Vintage Junk Lover

Happy hunting for junkers, DIYers, and antiques aficionados.

When you’re hunting antiques in Meridian, you’ll do a bit of roaming, and you’ll poke around in some unexpected places. In other words, you’ll do what antique hunters love to do anyway.

For a good starting point, head out on U.S. Highway 45 a little past the Marion town limit. You’ll find two big antique malls a quarter mile apart: Captain's 45 Flea Market and Amish Store and Penny’s Little Flea Market. Both have plenty to browse in the parking lot before you make your way to the booths inside. 45 Flea Market, in particular, probably has at least one example of whatever you’re looking for, from old farm machinery to delicate glassware. It even attracted a film crew from Home Town, the HGTV series that stars home restorers Ben and Erin Napier, [INVALID]d in Laurel, Mississippi. Less than a half mile south of Captain's 45 Flea Market and Amish Store, just off U.S. 45 on Sam Lackey Road, is the new location of Uneedit (or, as the sign on the building says, U-need-it) a mall, flea market, pawnshop, and auction company that specializes in antiques, collectibles, and estates. A few miles south of that, on Dale Drive (Old Highway 45), you'll discover Finders Keepers Flea Market & Antique Mall, also in a new (and air-conditioned!) location.

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Moving into Meridian itself, you’ll want to check out Hidden Treasures Flea Market, another large, climate-controlled space with an ever-evolving group of vendors. It’s on Old Marion Road, just off Highway 45.

Downtown Meridian features several different antiquing experiences, including an imposing, century-old building on Front Street. The Hulett occupies the former home of the Hulett Furniture Company, a family-owned store that closed in 2010 after 125 years in business. It’s now a fine interiors and antiques market, with several antiques and collectibles booths on the first floor and a fascinating variety of furniture and art on the second and third floors. It also still sells new furniture, mostly by custom order. 

Blocks away, on the other side of the railroad tracks, Family Flea Market claims to be the largest indoor flea market in East Mississippi and West Alabama that’s open year-round. It rambles through 52,000 square feet in three connected buildings, with more than 200 vendors.

In the bustling retail area along Poplar Springs Drive/Highway 493 in north Meridian, The Atrium Mini Mall houses a unique business model. It features a collection of upscale mini-boutiques selling furniture, clothing, jewelry, artwork, and lots more. You’ll have to do some browsing to find the antiques among the new merchandise. Trust us: You won’t mind a bit.