Falcon Rest's Victorian Gift Shop is
the perfect shop for everyone who loves things elegant, old-fashioned
or out-of-the-ordinary.
There are thousands of items here fit for an 1890s mansion that
you won't find anywhere else! In fact, the shop recently won the
Cumberland Business Journal's Ovation Award as the must unusual
retail establishment in a 14-county area.
The 1,200 square foot showroom is
located inside Falcon Rest's Visitor Center next door to the
mansion. |
 Gems
from the Gent
Our former regional tourism director visited Falcon
Rest's Victorian Gift Shop shortly after we moved into its
new 2,500 sq. ft. building in 1999. Her reaction: "This shop is a tourist
attraction in itself." In keeping with Falcon Rest's
theme as "the Victorian mansion where history is fun,"
the unique array of 1800's merchandise invites visitors to
play, laugh and interact. The guys tell us it's a gift shop
even a man can love!
The current shop has come a long way from
our first one, located in the mansion's 300-sq.-ft. smokehouse.
The idea of a museum gift shop isn't all that unique, but
we'd been so focused on getting the Falcon Rest mansion restored
and opened to the public, it took a visitor's suggestion for
us to think about adding a gift shop.
He said, "You know, when people like
us tour a place, we're going to eat somewhere, and we're going
to buy a memento of our trip somewhere. What you need to do
is get ALL of our money."
Believe it or not, that concept appealed to this
Victorian Gentleman! The Victorian Lady said she could almost see
dollar signs rolling in my eyes, like I was a slot machine that
had hit the jackpot. So in 1995, our Victorian Gift Shop was born.
It didn't have much merchandise -- the Lady teased that it was more
of a card shop than a gift shop.
But over the years it has
grown into one of the best gift shops I've ever seen at a historic
mansion. We tell people we have over 3,000 items that could have
been in the mansion in the 1890s ... but nothing you'll find at
Wal-Mart! There's everything from roller coaster music boxes to
lithophane nightlights ... hundreds of books on the era to Victorian-style
decor and clothing ... toys, games and candy to authentic replicas
of Civil War swords and Old West six-shooters!
A Myriad of Music Boxes
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Dolls Large, Small, Beautiful & Frightful
All About the 1800s ... "our" era
Toys for "Children" of All Ages
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