Newtown Country Mill:

Ten Years Of Bringing Primitives And Antiques To Newtown

By  Nancy K. Crevier

Being distressed is not such a bad thing — if you are a piece of primitive artwork at Newtown Country Mill, that is. The small shop located in a former 1950s cider mill at 160 Sugar Street (Route 302) is one of only a few regional stores specializing in primitives and antiques, said owner Linda Manna, who is celebrating ten years in business this year.

A former interior landscaper who designed, installed, and cared for indoor plantings at businesses all over the state, in 1998 Ms Manna’s son Rob, who operates LRM Landscape Contractors with brother Lee, encouraged his mother to open the store as a complementary service to his business, then located there. “I have always had a love of antiques and primitives and gardening,” said Ms Manna, so she took her son up on his idea and opened Newtown Country Mill in February of 1998.

“Rob’s business quickly outgrew this space and he moved to Church Hill Road, but I have just continued growing here,” said Ms Manna.

The exterior of Newtown Country Mill is a rambling display of annuals and perennial plants, spilling from roughly hewn window boxes, wheelbarrows, carts, and even a tiny red tricycle. Petunias and geranium baskets swing from wrought iron hooks, and flowering vines scramble up poles. “I could stay in back of the shop all day making arrangements,” said Ms Manna, who is also happy to make dried or fresh flower arrangements in any container brought in by a customer. In the fall, she said, the custom planter arrangements take on an autumnal air, with pumpkins, gourds, and squashes taking the spotlight.

Inside the store, Crash, the resident golden retriever, lounges on a braided rug and invites customers to browse the artful displays. The sweet scent of potpourri swirls through the air. “We love when someone just comes in and walks around,” said Ms Manna. “There’s no pressure here, and I don’t think you can have a nicer compliment than for someone to come in, spend half an hour appreciating the things, and leave feeling good. I even have customers who stop in just to visit with Crash.”

The store has become a family affair, with daughter Michelle Ferris creating primitive paintings and signage sold in the store, and Ms Manna’s husband, Bob, providing woodworking skills. “Michelle has always been very artistic,” said Ms Manna. “She studied fashion merchandising at Teikyo Post, and now that she is a stay-at-home mom, she has time to do this painting.”

Primitive art has a rustic, worn look, explained Ms Manna, full of nicks and scratches and a “distressed” look. Antiques are more carefully preserved. “A piece can be both an antique and primitive, though,” said Ms Manna.

Every nook and cranny of the store is filled with items made in the USA, or made by the Manna family. Along with Ms Ferris’s primitive art painting, dried and fresh flower arrangements are all the work of Ms Manna, who creates them from flowers and herbs grown in her Newtown garden. Rustic baskets and clusters of dried hydrangea, lavender, and herbs hang from the rafters and peer from the tops of handcrafted cupboards and shelves, the baskets laden with still more florals or draped with woven placemats and table runners.

“We carry family heirloom woven items like bedding, the placemats, and table runners, and the 100 percent cotton braided rugs, all made in North Carolina,” said Ms Manna, “and the Tolland flags, which are flags for the garden or house and are very popular, especially the Americana ones.” She and her husband also spend the few days off that they have traveling the region, seeking antiques that are one-of-a-kind for the store. “I always tell people, if they see something, have me set it aside. It may not be here when they return,” she said.

Wooden bowls and troughs, lamps and lampshades, furniture, and chandeliers are interspersed throughout the two rooms. On the walls hang antiqued mirrors and plaques, as well as reproduction primitive art portraits, signs made to order, and other country-style wall hangings. Redware and yellowware pottery from Massachusetts and Ohio is interspersed on table tops and in cupboards along with the gently fragranced candles by Keepers of the Light. “I love these candles, they are one of my favorite items here. They are not heavy and ‘perfumey’, but have a ‘homey’ scent. When you walk into a room where one of these is burning, you think, ‘Ummm. What’s baking?’” said Ms Manna.

Primitive toys, antique-look pillows, and needlework are propped up on chairs, and wrought iron candle holders and accessories crafted by Amish artists are tucked into corners. Also very popular, said Ms Manna, are the metal stars. “We have stars from two inches to five feet in diameter that come from the Amish in Pennsylvania, where I think that whole tradition of stars on the sides of homes and barns started. They are made from tin from old tin roofs,” Ms Manna said, “and people here just have to have them.”

The fall through the holidays are really the peek for the season at Newtown Country Mill, when every space in the store is packed with gift and home ideas, said Ms Manna. “We go all out at the holidays. There isn’t a bare space.”

Even though it is just the height of the summer season now, already she is thinking about clearing space to make way for the fall merchandise. Through July 7, Newtown Country Mill will have all furniture at 30 percent off, and the rest of the store items discounted 20 percent. A tag sale of discontinued items will take place during store hours on Saturday, June 28. “It’s the only way I can make enough room for the new things,” said Ms Manna.

She is pleased that in her ten years of business she has drawn not only a Newtown following, but a large customer base from all over the region. “I have had customers tell me that it is worth a trip from almost anywhere. And in ten years, we have learned to listen to our customers and carry what they are looking for. If we don’t carry it, we can order it.”

The variety of people that she meets and the opportunity to work with the primitives and antiques that she loves make work a real pleasure for Ms Manna, and she hopes that that joy is passed on to those who visit Newtown Country Mill.

“How lucky can I be to say that I love going in to work each day?” she asked.

Newtown Country Mill is located at 160 Sugar Street, about ¾ mile from the intersection of Routes 25 and 302, toward Bethel. The store is open year around, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 10 am to 5 pm. It is closed Wednesdays, and during the months of July and August, it is also closed on Sundays. For more information, for special orders, or to be placed on the mailing list, call 270-3441.