Used bookstore, Southern antique shop to open across from Neuse museum site

The owners of two local businesses have decided to set up shop in what could become a prime location: across from the site of the CSS Neuse museum.

Although the site is still just an empty lot — construction of a facility to house the remains of the CSS Neuse ironclad is expected to begin during 2010 — business people recognize the draw of such an institution.

“One thing leads to another, and no matter what town you’re talking about, major cultural investments seem to have a transformative effect,” Pride of Kinston director Adrian King said. “And I think that museum will change the whole character of Queen Street, and those two stores are just the beginning.”

Jeff and Karen Lovett own Southern Heritage Folk Arts and Antiques, currently located in the 300 block of North Herritage Street. They recently needed a new building for the business, though, and King helped them find 115 N. Queen St.

Jeff Lovett said it is good to have the museum across the street, because the inventory includes Civil War-era artifacts such as prints of sketches depicting Civil War battles.

“I am going to handle some Civil War artifacts and prints,” he said. “I have historic prints (of the battles) … they are 140 years old, some of them.”

Lovett plans to open the Queen Street shop shortly after the new year begins; he said the two-story building allows more room to display the inventory, which includes historic artifacts from the 1720s to the 1950s, paintings by black and white Southern folk artists; American Indian artifacts, costume jewelry and hand carved-items.

“What (we) had at Herritage (Street) was only the tip of the iceberg,” he said.

While being across from the Neuse museum was not the main reason Lori and David Favre established Mockingbird Books next door at 113 N. Queen St., Lori Favre said it would help in the long run.

“It’s certainly a benefit, I think, in the long run, but we really chose the building because it was really conducive to what we envisioned the store looking like when we opened,” she said.

Favre and her husband, who have strong ties to Kinston, moved to town last November from Greenville. She said she has wanted to open a used bookstore since she was in her teens.

“We talked about a lot of different locations, and we just thought that downtown Kinston, the potential for downtown to grow with all the industry that’s coming to into Kinston, we just through it was a good opportunity, a good place to be,” Favre said.

David Anderson can be reached at 252-559-1077 or danderson@freedomenc.com.