CAZENOVIA — This spring, the former Old and Everlasting shop on Ballina Road in Cazenovia will be brought back to life as The Housewren, a new business offering antique and restored furniture alongside curated gifts and home decor.
Instead of maintaining regular retail hours, owners Anya Woods O’Neill and Adam O’Neill are looking forward to holding occasional open houses/sales and doing most of their business online.
“Adam and I have always loved renovating and working on old things, so last summer I started dabbling in refinishing old furniture,” said Woods O’Neill. “I sold a couple of pieces online and decided it would be great to turn the shop into a little showroom so that anyone local who wanted to see a piece before they committed could pop in and take a look. From there, I thought it would be great to open the shop perhaps three to four times a year for pop-up-type events where people could browse not only [furniture but also] a curated selection of home goods — décor like vases, florals, baskets, throw blankets and pillows, etc.”
The Housewren’s first pop-up is scheduled for Mother’s Day weekend. The shop will be open Friday, May 12 through Sunday, May 14, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Woods O’Neill said her hope is that people will stop by to pick up a Mother’s Day gift, check out the new shop, and enjoy a beautiful spring day in the country.
According to Woods O’Neill, the initial sale, which will feature a lot of gardening and spring-themed items, will be followed by a fall event with cozier items and seasonal décor, and then a holiday pop-up.
“That’s the plan as long as this first one is a success,” she said.
Marianne and Rob Barry, the property’s former owners, opened Old and Everlasting in 1988 and expanded the original building in 1996. Filled with home goods, antiques, gifts, and women’s clothing and accessories, the shop was a popular and well-known local attraction for nearly three decades.
In 2018, after closing the business, the Barrys sold their 19th-century farmhouse, barn, and shop to Woods O’Neill and O’Neill.
Since purchasing the property, the couple has been eager to breathe new life into the shop and continue the legacy of its previous owners.
In April 2019, Woods O’Neill approached the Town of Cazenovia Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) to express her desire to reopen a retail store in the space.
The ZBA determined that due to the expiration of the property’s special use permit, the building was no longer authorized for retail.
The board referred to retail as a “nonconforming use,” a use that was allowed under zoning regulations at the time it was established but that is no longer permitted under current regulations. According to the town code, legal nonconforming status is lost when the active operation of the nonconforming use is discontinued for a period of one calendar year. Any subsequent use of the structure must comply with the district’s existing use regulations.
By the time Woods O’Neill and O’Neill purchased the property, Old and Everlasting had been closed for more than a year and the special use permit had expired.
Woods O’Neill said that since the ZBA made its determination, she and her husband have used the building primarily as a seasonal home office and storage space.
“There is so much history in that building and such a long legacy of bringing joy and contributing to the community,” she said. “We didn’t want to see that lost, but it took us a long time to figure out what we could do that would stay within the confines of what the town allows but also fit with our vision for the space. [The Barrys] reopened Old and Everlasting near their new home in Maine, which just goes to show you how much they loved the shop; they just couldn’t live without it. So, it has always been a dream of ours to make sure the original building didn’t just sit vacant. We wanted to find a way to continue to have it mean something to this community and beyond.”
According to Woods O’Neill, her furniture refinishing work is another nod to Old and Everlasting.
“I really love taking pieces that no one wants and redoing them so that they live on,” she said.
She explained that her process involves taking high-quality solid wood furniture that might not be in style right now and giving it a fresh look.
“. . . Buying new pieces of that quality is so expensive, so my business gives people an alternative — buying used but totally refinished furniture that has been given that modern update,” she said. “I also work with clients to redo heirloom pieces they have had in their family [and] want to keep but update the look. So, it’s a nice marriage of what I’m passionate about and the Old and Everlasting history.”
The Housewren is located at 1826 Ballina Rd. in Cazenovia.
To shop online and register for the opening weekend, visit the-housewren.com. Follow The Housewren on Instagram @the-housewren.
