St. Petersburg Times - St. Petersburg, Fla.
Author: MICHAEL CANNING
Date: Apr 22, 2005
Start Page: 6
Section: CITY TIMES
Copyright Times Publishing Co. Apr 22, 2005
TWO DECADES FOR SOHO SHOP: This is a big week for Other Side Antiques owners John and Mary Ann Benton.
They celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary and their 20th year in business.
The Other Side has occupied a two-story, 1921 house at 308 S Howard Ave. for 15 of those 20 years, long before the street was known as SoHo or Tampa's Restaurant Row.
"Now everybody and his brother seems to be moving to this part of town," John Benton said. So he doesn't expect to be moving any time soon.
Even when the 3,000-square-foot house gets packed with fresh shipments of antique furniture and stained glass from the United Kingdom and France, Benton doesn't think about relocating.
"I don't really think I'd want a bigger a building," he said. A crowded old house is an appropriate environment for selling antiques, he said.
Many times, the house helps make a sale.
"Often we'll have a customer say something like, 'We're looking for something to fit between two windows - kind of like those.' "
For its first five years, the Other Side was located on Barcelona Street next to the Lee Roy Selmon Crosstown Expressway.
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