In One Era

BY MAGGIE OLIVE KLEIN
KONKLIFE STAFF WRITER AND EDITOR 

Leda Andrews is the owner of “In One Era”, an antique store located in the heart of the Bahama Village. According to the website, the store is “A wonderful treasure trove of vintage, antique and estate jewelry. Where the unusual is every day!” Andrews says that she has always been captivated by antique work, and became fascinated at a very young age, due to her upbringing in her family’s Victorian house in Massachusetts. She says, “I was only about ten years old at the time, but could appreciate the beautiful tile work, hand painted canvases, and original antiques that made up the house.” From there, she immediately wanted to learn about antiques, and eventually, began to habit thrift stores. She went to these stores, bought items, and found that she could resell them to antique dealers. 

Although she worked some odd jobs, Andrews always felt that it would be an ideal situation to be her own boss, especially because she wanted to be a mother, and wanted to be able to be around her children. Andrews opened her first store on Fleming Street in Key West! She and her co-worker bought all kinds of items that needed tremendous work, and the two worked together and navigated the long learning curve that is the world of antiques. However, once she had her daughter, and eventually, another child, things got a bit hectic, and she decided to take a few years off. After tending to her family for some time, she felt the burning need to get her store back, and thus, opened another one on White Street, which operated for almost 16 and a half years. 

Eventually, Andrews moved her work to Bahama Village, an area that she claims “has the best restaurants in town, as well as a lot of foot traffic.” She found that she was so interested in the business, that she would continue to educate herself on what she was selling, and how certain things went in and out of style. After about 33 years of the practice, Andrews has found that at this time, she is mostly selling jewelry items, and mostly to tourists. Interestingly enough, she notes that the pandemic was actually helpful with business. She states, “With the pandemic I was reevaluating everything, wondering what was going to happen, but I found that Key West was booming after the lockdown, and we had the best year ever last year.” 

Andrews has a wide selection of items that she sells at In One Era, including clothing that is shown in a side room of the store, featuring clothing labeled “new, used, and vintage”. She notes the popularity of her rack of tropical shirts, and how they’re been a hit amongst many male customers! Andrews also mentioned that a mural she commissioned ten years ago, titled “Saturday Afternoon”, is going to be redone. It was created based on photos that she took based on a project she worked on in a photography class called “Key West Characters”. The mural is very meaningful to Andrews and the community at large, and has been popular amongst photo ops.

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