New Antiques Store Opens in Orth Building
Mark Madge and Joelle Graves
“Sterling Creek Antiques” is scheduled to open November 2 on the street level of the Orth Building at 150 S. Oregon Street in Jacksonville, Oregon. The building is also home to the Jacksonville Barn Company and LaFiesta Mexican Restaurant.
The new shop is co-owned by local Joelle Graves and her business partner, Mark Madge. The two have joined forces with friends Lanny and Dorinda Doolittle who will carry a mixture of country, early American and turn-of the-century furniture. Graves specializes in glass, chinaware and sterling while Madge is a collector of everything “retro.” The store will feature antique furniture, as well.
If the name Joelle Graves sounds familiar, there’s a reason – she was the Director of Education for Britt Music Festivals from 2004-2011. “While at Britt, I met Mark…we discovered we both had a passion for collecting and started joking that it would be fun to open a store together some day.”
Prior to her Jacksonville retail journey, Graves and her husband Roger opened Manning and Morgan Antiques in 1985, while raising two daughters in Ashland. “We were in business until 1995 and were very involved with the Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Merchants Association, working hard to make a difference and improve business during the off-season.
In 1994, Joelle took-on some acting roles with Rogue Music Theatre in Grants Pass and with the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland. She was an actress for several years until being asked to serve as General Manager of the RMT, which she did until 1998.
In addition to being a professional actress, Graves held a position and what she called her dream job as Arts Coordinator with the Oregon Youth Authority in Grants Pass. After that position was eliminated due to a lack of funding, she was recruited by Britt Festivals as their Education Director.
“Now at age 60,” she says, “I decided it was time to love what I was doing and do what I loved. Mark and I started looking for a space for the store and came upon the space in Jacksonville. We knew immediately it was perfect in all ways – in a town we loved, in a great location, and the perfect size.”
“If all goes according to plan with the city and others, we hope to be open on November 2,” Graves says.