Memory Lane Antiques owner Eileen Conley is celebrating 35 years in downtown Buda as part of First Thursday tomorrow. The event begins at 6 p.m. The antiques shop offers refurbishing and restoration, as well as photo sessions, wedding and special event planning. (Photos by Veronica Gordon)
by VERONICA GORDON
Memory Lane Antiques owner Eileen Conley was busy setting the stage this week in celebration of a milestone – the shop’s 35th anniversary. The event is part of downtown Buda’s “First Thursday.”
“I thought it was time we had a celebration,” Conley said. “And a little thank you to everyone.”
Conley has been running Memory Lane since taking over the shop from her brother-in-law and sister-in-law, who opened it 37 years ago.
“It was open for a couple of years,” Conley said. “Then they decided to sell it. I love antiques, so I talked my husband into buying it from them.”
“At the time, Buda was a little dusty town,” Conley said. “There was nothing downtown.”
Through the years, Buda’s downtown has changed, and Conley has been there watching it first-hand.
“Ours is the oldest intact Main Street in Hays County,” she said. “It’s kind of a big thing.”
The building was originally built in 1914, Conley said, as a drug store and doctor’s office until 1952.
“Nothing on this building has changed,” she said.
Conley’s business has done well over the years, but in order to remain profitable, she has taken her antiques on the road, and she’s expanding into the area of hosting weddings and special events upstairs.
“We’ll do whatever it takes to stay in business,” she said.
Conley said the empty lot next door will be available for special events, as well. She plans to give a tour of the facility during the First Thursday event Sept. 6.
“The tourism and Main Street projects are really getting off the ground,” Conley said. “It’s good for all the businesses downtown.”
The event is open to the public. There will be food and drinks, music and a collection of old black and white photos of the way downtown looked in the past.
“The photos are amazing,” Conley said. “I’m really looking forward to this. We’ve been working really hard.”
