VILLAGE OF MINOA – After going from one area mall to another, Room To Improve has made the move to Station 217 in Minoa.
The one-stop shop for home decor, keepsakes and vintage furniture has been open at the former power station at 359 S. Main St. since July 17, but it wasn’t until Oct. 8 that it held its official ribbon cutting.
During the months in between, as they settled into the space, owner Sharon Valerio and her son John had time to unpack their wares and stock the shelves with a distinctive, diversified mix of handmade and manufactured products. The store’s focus on American-made gifts has, however, supplied cohesion to the variety of the merchandise, and Sharon Valerio even aims to sell at least one thing representing every one of the 50 states inside the walls of her “tiny” family business.
The Valerio family also seeks to host rooftop events at the store, and while they’re at it, they hope to live upstairs and purchase a real trolley to have on display somewhere on the property, similar to the kind featured in Spaghetti Warehouse restaurants.
People who stop into Room To Improve will see that the store is divided into sections with themes like car and garage, camping, and gardening, as well as one dedicated to beach, lake, river and pond visits. Some sections will change with the seasons, and others will come and go based on whether it’s approaching Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving or Christmas on the calendar.
The shelves are lined with everything from handcrafted farmhouse signs, decorative ornaments and birdhouses to tea packets, mugs and colored popcorn. To the side, visitors can tinker with an antique stove and an old-timey, presently non-functioning phone booth.
For manager John Valerio, who not long ago graduated from Siena College as a history major, it’s all part of an effort to give off a “fun, unique, heartfelt and nostalgic” feel. Built to completion in 1906, Station 217 functioned until the 1930s as a powerhouse for electric cable cars that followed a route from East Syracuse to Utica.
The Valerios bought the building in October 2017 and from there they began renovating it and bringing it up to code with a team of contractors. Full bricks were put in on the outside, a bathroom was added and the windows were restored, made to closely resemble the original ones.
“We wanted to put it back as historically correct as possible with a limited budget,” Sharon Valerio said. “It takes me back in time when I look at it.”
Room To Improve switched from ShoppingTown Mall to Great Northern Mall and then to Destiny USA before relocating to its current eye-catching spot along South Main Street. To learn more about what the store has to offer, visit station217.com.
