August 2011 Greater Harrisburg's Community Newspaper - theBurg

Burg Biz
Shop Window
What’s Behind the Red Door
Chairs, desks, décor, lamps—gallery showcases area’s best used goods.
Peter Durantine
Taxi! Irene Berman-Levine, Jessica Berman, Cotton, and Sam Levine
have an old London taxi to sell, as well as a store-full of elegant used
furniture.
Travel down Paxton Street near the
outskirts of Harrisburg, and it’s hard
to miss the Red Door Consignment
Gallery. Elegant furnishings fill the
two-story display windows and a 1957
black London taxi is parked out front,
waiting a new owner.
The taxi adds to the consignment
store’s atmosphere of anticipation, of
finding something of interest or just
the right thing among the used, highend
furniture, furnishings, artwork and
antiques.
“We grew up with this feeling that
you can’t waste anything—you have
to re-use things,” said Irene Berman-
Levine, a licensed auctioneer who
noted that she and her husband, Sam,
have a passion for old things. “Our
hobby has always been antiques.”
The Levines and Irene’s sister,
Jessica Berman, opened the Red Door
in March in the same 60,000-squarefoot
building as the Direct Office
Furniture Outlet, owned by Leonard
and Charles Berman, the sisters’
father and uncle. The taxi belongs to
Leonard, who acquired it long ago.
Starting at 10 years old, the
sisters learned the retail furniture
trade at Cole & Co., founded in
downtown Harrisburg in 1947 by their
grandmother, Edith Cole, who only
died a few years ago at age 103.
“If you had a day off, you still
worked,” recalled the 57-year-old Irene.
The sisters and Sam decided to
open the consignment gallery after a
similar store on the West Shore closed
and left what they
believed was a
void in the local
market.
Sam is retired
from 33 years in
the mortgage
industry. Irene
has a doctorate
in nutrition. And
Jessica spent
26 years in the
commercial office
furniture retail
business, where
she designed
space. One of
the services that
Red Door offers is
room design.
Red Door’s large, but still intimate,
showroom occupies the front 15,000
square feet of the building. “We really
have the ability to take up 30,000
square feet of space here, and the rest
is Direct Office,” Sam said.
As customers browse the aisles,
taking pictures of items with their cell
phones to send to their significant
others for approval, Sam said the
greatest demand is for mid-20th
century modern furniture, such as
Henredon and Heywood Wakefield.
“It’s solid, solid furniture,” he said.
In valuing a family-run business,
the sisters, as well as Sam, appreciate
the importance of relationships.
Cotton, Jessica’s small, white Maltese,
a dog she rescued from the animal
shelter, sits on the counter to greet
arriving customers.
“We have a good time,” Jessica
said. “Cotton has a boyfriend that
comes in.”
Red Door builds its inventory
from estate sales, buyouts and
consignments, but doesn’t accept
damaged items. It has acquired a wide
variety of interesting merchandise
that includes paintings evaluated by
Sotheby’s.
A consignment shop’s success can
reflect economic times, and since Red
Door opened, the sisters and Sam said
they have been quite busy.
“We hear a lot from people who
are downsizing,” said Sam. “Or from
people who can now afford a 10-room
home because real estate is down,”
Jessica said.
And, one day, they just may hear
from someone who wants an old
London taxi.
Red Door Consignment Gallery, 2635 Paxton
St., Harrisburg. Hours: Monday to Friday, 10
a.m. to 5 p.m. (open late Thursdays until 7 p.m.);
Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Call 717-233-5111 or
visit www.RedDoorConsignmentgallery.com.
Sprawling, yet intimate: two slices of the Red Door Consignment Gallery’s huge showroom.
TheBurg 13