By: Stephen McCollum

Was it destiny that brought Antiques Emporium and its proprietor, Marvin Miller, to Blackford County? Well, not in the sense that it was predetermined, but when you listen to him tell about the turns in his life from childhood to middle age it’s like watching a skilled jigsaw puzzler bring an obscure outline into focus.

Miller’s father was a career U.S. Army officer. They moved a lot, within the states and then a stint in Germany—all before high school. 

“My interest in history and learning about new places stems from that,” said Miller. “My parents both got interested in antiques while in Germany. My father had a fabulous antique clock collection. When he retired, during my high school years, we lived in Atlanta. They decided to open an antique business. So I worked with them through high school—going to sales, learning to refinish and repair items, occasionally minding the store.”

Miller also had three uncles who were pilots in the U.S. Air Force. He admired them all and wanted to follow in their contrails, so to speak, so he passed the pilot qualifying exams and took an R.O.T.C. scholarship to the University of Georgia and majored in business. 

“There were six of us, out of the 200 ROTC candidates, who wanted to go to flight school,” he said. “One day the head of the program came in and announced that the Air Force had determined there were too many pilots in the system and they were only going to advance one of us, based on our grade point average. I was second in GPA, so my dream of becoming a pilot was over.”

But he elected to stick with the Air Force and made a career of it using his business degree in various capacities. After 20 years, he retired into the Air National Guard and took a job with a hospital in Vermont. New England was yet another new stop for Miller, but New England, rich in history, refueled his interest in antiques. 

“I started buying and selling antiques on the side,” said Miller. He made another job-related move to Chicago, then eventually to Nashville with a large healthcare system—all the while acquiring and dealing in antiques as a sidebar to his day job. After several years, he convinced management that his work could be done remotely on the computer and so he started searching for his next stop.

By then his children had settled in Chicago, but he didn’t want to move back to the city. He started searching locations that were equidistant to Chicago and Nashville, because he still had a few more years of employment there and might have to make occasional business trips.

“I wanted a historic home in a small town that met that geographic criterion,” he said. He considered options in three states but eventually found the house he wanted in Hartford City in the fall of 2010. “I knew no one in town but that was not unusual for me given my lifetime of moving and starting again in new places.”

Miller was in Hartford City almost eight years—fixing up his home, buying another house for a rental property—before he opened Antiques Emporium. 

“I learn something new every day,” he said. “People bring in items they want to sell or ask about items they are interested to buy, and if I don’t know something about those things right away I’ll do research to learn more about value and authenticity. Take glassware, for example. This is glass country and there are so many types of glassware and makers. There was a Coca-Cola bottling plant in Hartford City. One of the hardest things to find is a Coke bottle that has the HC stamp on the bottom. I’ve not seen one but I saw one online for $350!”

One of the unique things about Antiques Emporium is that, thanks to word-of-mouth and some Facebook outreach, it draws visitors and potential customers from other towns and several bordering states. Some have returned after discovering the store.

Take the two men traveling through town last fall who noticed the store but it was after hours. They peered through the window and saw enough to fire their interest that they stayed overnight and greeting Miller the next morning as he opened. 

“They said we looked in the window and saw that you have a real antique store,” Miller said. What could be worth an extra night on the road to get into a real antique store? Miller doesn’t remember how much they bought, but one of them definitely left with an antique railroad lantern. These customers have tracked back to the store after that initial, inspired visit.

His inventory is a natural conversation starter, and several times Miller has taken out-of-town visitors to local eateries before wishing them well on their travels. 

“I knew it wouldn’t be easy, that it would take a while to start something like this, but I’m trying to do something that’s reputable and classy with respect to antiques,” Miller said. 

While he deals in things that are old, this newcomer is making a difference in the community.