Elder’s Antiques

Elder’s Antiques at 2124 Cherokee Street is the larger of the two family storefronts on Historic Cherokee Antique Row, the biggest antique shopping district in St. Louis. The building has long carried a reputation as the oldest and largest antique shop in the city, and it still works that way today: three full floors of stock inside a historic South City commercial storefront in the Marine Villa neighborhood, a short walk from Benton Park and the Lemp Brewery complex.

This is the furniture flagship of the business. The floors are filled with quality mahogany, walnut and oak — dining suites, sideboards, secretaries, bedroom sets, cabinets and casegoods, including inlaid Baker mahogany pieces — alongside Victorian, Art Deco and Midcentury Modern designs, mirrors, mantels and architectural elements. Larger pieces are concentrated here rather than at the second shop, so buyers looking for a complete room or a substantial single piece usually start at this address.

Smalls fill the rest of the space and cover the full range of a traditional general-line antique store: sterling and silverplate, cut crystal and Bohemian glass, Wedgwood and other fine china, pottery, prints and framed art, linens, lamps, jewelry, vinyl records, advertising and St. Louis memorabilia, and paper ephemera down to vintage postcards. Price points are deliberately broad, from inexpensive collectibles to serious furniture, and displays are kept organized enough to browse the whole building comfortably.

The shop is a four-generation, family-run operation with roots in the early 1980s. Cherri Elder and her husband David acquired this building around 2000; her daughters Cheyenne and Shannon now supervise the shop, Cherri handles buying, and her brother “Butch” repairs and restores furniture. Nearly all inventory comes directly out of private estates in the St. Louis area rather than from auctions or out-of-state wholesalers, which gives the selection a distinctly regional character. The store buys as well as sells, and can arrange delivery and shipping.