Keith Faulkner stands alongside an old Victrola on display at Faulkner and Son on Main Street in Mathews. Photo by Sherry Hamilton
Doug Williams has a treasure trove of baseball memorabilia at his home in Gloucester.
You think you know your hometown; then you stop in a small museum or art exhibit, and another dimension unveils its wonders. How much do you really know about the place you live?
The series, "Hometown Treasures," explores public museums, exhibits and archives open to all, and private collections available for viewing by appointment.
This week, we take a look at private collections; stories were compiled by members of the Gazette-Journal staff.
Faulkner’s appliance museum
Faulkner and Son on Main Street in Mathews might look like just another appliance store, but it has a second, less obvious purpose, as well. Inside the old store is a veritable history of Mathews County, written in a collection of appliances and household goods that date back more than a century.
Keith Faulkner, owner, says a lot of the items have been in his family for years, while others have been given to him by people who no longer had room to keep them but couldn’t bear to throw them away.
Old wringer washers, wooden ice boxes, radios, flat irons, irons that run off LP gas or kerosene, oil lamps, toasters, mixers, metal fans, telephones, oil lamps, and a wind-up Victrola are all part of the museum Faulkner has created on one side of his retail store.