Donate, Sell, Buy Odds, Ends at NPA Flea Market

Karen Huff has been antiquing and flea marketing for years.

So when the Noblesville Preservation Alliance decided to offer a Flea Market during the pandemic in place of the annual Historic Home Tour three years ago, she was all in.

“The process of hefting, hauling, scrubbing and polishing is well worth the satisfaction of passing things along to happy new owners,” said Huff, who was found sifting through potential sale items in her backyard and helping with cleanup evenings this week at NPA’s Preservation Hall, located within walking distance of her house.

It’s her third year as a vendor in the NPA’s Flea Market, which will be 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. May 21 along Logan and Clinton streets and the side streets in between, plus south to the north side of Conner Street.

The Flea Market started in 2020 to raise money to transform the facade of Preservation Hall. “The brilliant idea to replace the Home Tour with a neighborhood Flea Market was a creative response to stark reality, a great salvage opportunity and a desperate need to raise funds for Preservation Hall,” NPA president Sandy Stewart told me back then. The NPA Flea Market committee easily transformed from home tour committee chaired by board vice president Jeanette Craw and secretary Mary Catherine Dillon, who are still accepting vendors for this year’s Flea Market.

“The Market has been a great opportunity to downsize,” said Huff, whose front yard in Old Town yard will be full of items that need to go to good homes.

“The best part of the day is visiting with old and new neighbors as well as people in the community,” she said.

“As poor newlyweds in 1973, we bought an Italianate-style home, circa 1880, on Logan Street. It was a very neglected duplex rental,” Huff said. “We lived in half and rented the other half to another poor newlywed couple. We became fast friends and subsequently cut a door through the adjoining wall after wallpaper stripping revealed the original opening.”

Her home is now single-family with two addresses. “We have made many improvements and some ‘disapprovements.’”

They raised three boys there and have four grandkids. Huff is a retired Noblesville Schools and emergency room nurse, and she and her husband own a log home supply business.

Huff said, “The event attracts yard-sale bargain hunters from the community and beyond, bringing awareness to NPA’s cause of historic preservation.”

While the Historic Home Tour returned in 2021, NPA’s Flea Market also returned. And this year, the 35th Historic Home Tour is on target for this fall, the third Saturday in September, on Sept. 17, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., in the Southwest Quadrant of Noblesville. Also, save the date for NPA’s Patriotic Party, 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. July 4, and watch the Noblesville Fourth of July Parade from Preservation Hall, followed by games and refreshments. 

– Contact Betsy Reason at betsy@thetimes24-7.com.