Antiquing in Shelbyville, Kentucky

I’ve found a little piece of heaven. Last October I had the pleasure of stopping in Shelbyville, Kentucky, just east of Louisville, for some antiquing on my way home from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I only had a limited time there – approximately 2 hours – but I fell in love with the antique malls in their downtown area and hope to visit again this summer as a weekend getaway.

Downtown Shelbyville is lined with antique malls but I only had time to visit three of them that day. One that particularly stands out was The Ruby Rooster. They’re even on Facebook, enticing my return with photos of new antiques and dealer booths. Everything in this mall was very clean and reasonably priced.

Milk JarsI stopped at two other antique malls next to The Ruby Rooster. One of them was your average antique mall but the other one had just opened, or moved to that location (I can’t remember) and, unfortunately, I didn’t write down their name.

I did find a few treasures there though. Both of these milk jars were purchased there for under $5 each. They look great displayed above my sink and work perfectly as vases.

What else can you do in Shelbyville, Kentucky? It turns out that I missed a lot while rushing through. Shelby County is known as “The American Saddlebred Capital of the World” and offers Horse Farm Tours. As a suburbanite, the only experience I have with horses was a weekend trip to a dude ranch as a girl scout. I’m not exactly sure what a Horse Farm Tour includes but I’m intrigued and will find out first-hand the next time I’m there.

Shelby County also has a weekend Farmer’s Market, wineries, distillery and amazing architecture to photograph. I think I may need longer than a weekend to take in everything!

Have you been to this area before? I’d love to hear your favorite things about Shelbyville, Kentucky.

2 Comments

  1. Anne,

    You definitely need return to Shelbyville. You need to have lunch/dinner at Claudia Sanders Dinner House which was started by Colonel Harland Sanders the Colonel of KFC.

    Also you missed a great antique gallery Wakefield-Scearce. It’s located in a 30,000 sq ft former girl’s preparatory school that ran from 1825-1939. They are closed on Sunday.

    See you this Summer!

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