Antique Shop Lives to Tell With Help From Sneaky Friends

It’s not often you hear a small business say they’ve been around 32 years, but Amanda Lynn’s Antiques can proudly claim just that.

The store's genesis was a journey. Owner Amanda Orefice grew up with a father who “dabbled in antiques.” As a teen she would visit antique shops with him and help out at the frequent family yard sales. In her twenties, Orefice enrolled in college to study education, but continued to explore the world of antiques, traveling regularly to Vermont for auctions. There, she made fast friends with Donald and Irene Turco who, at the time, owned seven antique stores. The Turcos thought Orefice was a natural. and encouraged her to open a shop in nearby Warren when Water Street building became available. Wanting to finish her degree, Orefice dismissed the idea. One day Donald Turco called and said he’d rented the building and had filled it with antiques.

“I said, ‘Who’s going to run it?’ He said, ‘We’ve found someone to run it,’” Orefice remembers. “I went down on a Friday afternoon. I walked in and said ‘Oh, my God. This is great!’ They handed me a key and list of what they’d paid for everything. They said, ‘This is your store.’ I just started crying." Orefice quit college and was off to the races.

Since then, Amanda Lynn’s Antiques has migrated from Warren to Fall River to it’s current spot on Fall River Avenue where it’s happily been for 20 years.

Amanda Lynn’s carries all of the beloved items you’d expect to find in a New England antique shop, though they are most well known for vintage costume jewelry and antique toys, particularly of the Victorian era. They also have an extensive collection of vintage Christmas and Halloween decorations.

When asked what it is about this work that gets her excited Orefice doesn’t hesitate. “The character of the objects, the quality, the nostalgia. I don’t think I own a new thing,” she says. “I eat, sleep and drink this. This is my whole life. I don’t foresee me doing anything else.”

Shop hours are by chance and by appointment, but Orefice says she’s open most days after noon and on weekends. There’s no parking in front of the building, but plenty on the  opposite side of the street or in the parking lot at the end of nearby Jerry Lane. For more information, call the shop at (508) 676-3329.