The easiest thing to miss at the Oklahoma City Farmers Public Market is also one of the best reasons to keep walking after you buy your vegetables.
Right beside the market is the OKC Farmers Market Antique Mall, a 20,000-square-foot antique and vintage maze inside one of Oklahoma City’s older public market properties. This is not a couple of booths tacked onto the side of a farmers market. It feels more like a collection of little shops under one roof, each one with its own taste, clutter, logic and temptation.
That is the kind of antique mall I like.
You do not have to know what you are looking for. In fact, it is probably better if you do not. You just start walking. One booth has old advertising. Another has furniture. Then records, clothing, jewelry, toys, glassware, sports memorabilia, postcards, magazines, license plates, kitchenware and some strange object that has no practical use but suddenly seems very important.
That is how they get you.
A Market Building With a Long Memory
The Antique Mall dates back to 1971, which already makes it one of Oklahoma City’s longtime antique-shopping stops. Public Market Antiques, tied to the Hogan family, goes back even earlier, to 1968, and still operates in Booth No. 1 with vintage postcards, magazines, old license plates, glassware, military items, hardware and Oklahoma nostalgia.
But the building around all of this is older than the antique mall itself.
The Oklahoma City Farmers Public Market opened in 1928 on the former site of Delmar Gardens, an early Oklahoma City amusement park. The market was built because farmers were coming into town and selling from trucks and wagons along downtown streets, creating the kind of traffic problem that sounds almost quaint now, unless you have tried to cross downtown during an event weekend.
Businessman John J. Harden helped make the centralized market happen. The main building opened with space for food and commerce downstairs, and the upstairs Market Garden Ballroom became an entertainment venue. Over the years, the property saw produce sellers, a meat market, bakery, candy store, grocery store, café, drugstore, dances, roller skating, boxing and live music.
Names tied to the building’s history include Count Basie, Hank Williams, Hank Thompson, Jim Reeves and Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys.
So yes, it is a pretty wild place to be digging through old action figures.
What You’ll Find Inside
Today, the antique mall works because it still feels booth-by-booth and owner-by-owner. The shops are independently operated and curated, so the merchandise changes as you move through the space.
One aisle may lean toward home décor and glassware. Another may have vintage clothing, hats, records or framed prints. There are collectibles, furniture pieces, old signs, toys, jewelry, sports items and plenty of things that fall into the broad antique mall category of “I don’t know what this is, but I want to look at it.”
That variety is the whole point.
Antique malls are dangerous in a very specific way. You walk in telling yourself you are only browsing. Then something reminds you of your grandparents’ house. Something else looks like a toy you had as a kid. Then you spot some piece of Oklahoma advertising, an old license plate or a weird kitchen item that feels like it belongs in your life for reasons you cannot defend in court.
And now you own it.
The setting makes it better. This entire property is basically a reuse story. A former amusement park site became a farmers market. A farmers market building became an event hall, a shopping stop, and later part of a revived district. Farmers’ stalls gave way to antiques. Old objects that might have been tossed out are now waiting on shelves for someone else to decide they still matter.
That is about as fitting as an antique mall location gets.
Make It a Farmers Market Saturday
The best way to do it is to pair the antique mall with a Saturday morning at the Oklahoma City Farmers Public Market.
The regular Saturday farmers market runs from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., with Oklahoma growers, ranchers, bakers and other local producers set up in the historic market building. Grab produce, bread, honey or whatever looks good that morning, then give yourself time to wander the antique mall afterward.
It also gives you a reason to slow down in the Farmers Market District instead of just driving past it on Oklahoma City Boulevard. The neighborhood has been steadily filling back in with food businesses, breweries, shops, events and gathering places, but the old Farmers Public Market is still the anchor.
That is what I liked most about this stop.
People have been coming here to buy things from independent Oklahoma sellers for almost a century. The goods have changed, but the rhythm is familiar: show up, walk around, talk to somebody, find something you did not know you needed.
Next time you go to the Oklahoma City Farmers Public Market, do not stop with the vegetables.
There is another 20,000 square feet of history next door.
Details
- Address: 311 S Klein Ave, Oklahoma City, OK 73108
- Phone: (405) 232-6506
- Hours: Wednesday 4-7 p.m., Thursday-Friday 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m.-6 p.m., Sunday noon-5 p.m. Individual shop hours may vary.
- Website: https://okcfarmersmarket.com/antique-mall/
