Vintage, collectible store to open on Main Street in downtown Waterville (2024)

WATERVILLE — Some of Jessica Stetson’s happiest memories are of fishing as a child with her grandfather or traveling with her father as he worked at camps on China Lake or discovered interesting artifacts at lawn sales or junk shops.

She also loved patronizing antique shops with her grandmother and learning from her the art of decorating.

Those early experiences influenced Stetson’s love of the outdoors and all things fishing-related, her penchant for scouring little-known second-hand shops, seeking Maine and American heritage collectibles, and finding vintage clothing and other treasures.

She plans to share her enthusiasm for such merchandise at Old Soul Supply Co., her new shop scheduled to open in a few weeks at 103 Main St. in downtown Waterville. The space last housed Jorgensen’s Cafe which moved farther north on Main Street a few years ago and eventually closed.

“I’m excited to bring something different to downtown,” Stetson, 32, said Friday at the shop. “It’s retail, which we are lacking downtown, but it’s going to be vintage. It’s going to be an experience, a place where people can come in and buy something for themselves, find a gift or just look around.”

She has publicized a June 20 opening, but hopes to be able to open May 18, a date she had initially targeted for opening. She has been working to ready the 2,106-square-foot space by cleaning, sorting and organizing inventory and lining up a couple of hand-picked vendors. Initially, she expects to be open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. most days and closed on Mondays.

“We have a ton of old workshop benches and old general store counters, old glass and oak display cases. It’s going to feel like you’re walking into an old general store, but it’s not old, if that makes any sense. We’ll have a clothing section toward the back of the store.”

Old and good quality brands such as Pendleton and L.L.Bean will be featured in the store, situated between the Paul J. Schupf Art Center and Loyal Biscuit Co. While the Jorgensen’s space had a wall that opened into a lower level that featured a seating area, the wall has been closed up and Stetson’s shop will be only on the main level.

“This is a perfect amount of space for me,” she said.

In 2021, Stetson opened a shop, Old Soul Collective in Skowhegan, and quickly outgrew that 600-square-foot space at the corner of Water and Court streets. She then moved the business to an upper floor on Silver Street in a 3,000-square-foot space where the former Sign of the Sun was located. Later, she joined forces with a business partner who remains at the Silver Street location with a separate business called Pink Crow Collective.

Old Soul Supply Co. will be like a modern-day general store with a heavy focus on carrying items for people who enjoy the great outdoors, according to Stetson. She will carry camping equipment and fishing gear, old pennant flags which she loves to collect, license plates, maps, posters, old advertisem*nts and much more, she said.

“A lot of this came from Liberty Tool — that’s one of my favorite places to go,” she said.

Stetson said celebrating local history is important to her, as she produced a Portland newspaper from 1937 that features a large photo of the Winslow basketball team on the front page.

“I’m also a fisherman,” she said. “If I’m not here or working with my kids, I’m fishing, mainly for bass or pike. I’m a river bum so I’m on the Kennebec a lot. I grew up spending time on China Lake, fishing and swimming. I have a local guy who makes lures. I’m working on getting inventory from him in here.”

The store, she said, also will carry home goods, candles, herbal remedies, body oils and salves.

Stetson was an only child, growing up on the China-Winslow town line. She graduated from Waterville High School and then enrolled in art school in Boston, but hated it and longed for home, she said. She returned to central Maine, opened a photography business in 2011 and continued operating it until 2021, when she opened her Skowhegan shop in May that year before moving it to Waterville. In her new space, she said she feels she can spread her wings and bring a longtime vision to life.

“I’ll be selling the goods that I genuinely love and hoping that the community will also love it, because it comes from my heart,” she said. “This entire place is going to be a reflection of me and where I’ve come from.”

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