The more the merrier: A college student joins community of North Lawrence retailers
In North Lawrence, you’re both in and out of town. The river is a powerful psychological divide.
With its blue collar, live-and-let-live vibe and roomy backyards with abundant vegetable gardens, its biker bars and tattoo parlors, auto shops and endless soundtrack of train whistles, North Lawrence feels like frontier country, a place far removed from the bustle across the river.
While the North Lawrence vibe has long attracted artists and musicians, its housing prices have lately caught the attention of young families and first-time home-buyers. Small businesses, too, are jumping the river for cheaper rent and off-path allure — none more readily, it appears, than the antiques and resale home furnishings trade.
Amy Ballinger was the first to make the leap. In 1998, she opened Amy’s Attic, a “gently used” furnishings shop, in an old warehouse at the intersection of Locust and Seventh streets. “I was the only one here for a long time,” she says, “but I had plenty of customers.”
