For antiques and vintage in Bardstown, start downtown on North Third Street: At Mary’s for hand-picked antiques and art, JT’s Consignments for its 5,000-square-foot floor of furniture and decor, and a handful of vintage and resale shops a few doors apart. Then, if you still have room in the car, try the vendor malls on the edge of town. Serious collectors should aim for April, when the Bardstown Antiques Show brings dealers from several states. Call smaller shops before you go; their hours move.
What to expect
Bardstown looks like an antiques town. The historic district has 279 listed properties around Court Square, and several of its B&Bs are furnished with antiques. The shopping itself is more modest than the scenery suggests. There are a few strong shops downtown and a scattering of mall-style and resale spots, and several once-popular names have faded from current directories.
That makes it a half-day hunt rather than a dedicated antiquing trip, which is a fine thing to fold into a bourbon weekend. Go on a weekday or Saturday, bring measurements and a tape measure, and leave space in the trunk.
Downtown: the shops to see first
At Mary’s
At Mary’s, 116 N. Third St., is the most reliable stop: a gift and home shop that mixes art, selected antiques, silk florals and gifts. It opened in 2004, is open Monday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and took Best Regional Boutique in the 2026 Best of Kentucky awards. Tripadvisor reviewers describe a “cheery shop filled with a wide variety of gifts and furnishings, many we’d never seen before.” You can book a one-on-one shopping appointment, handy if you are furnishing a room.
JT’s Consignments
JT’s Consignments, 222 N. Third St., has been open since May 2010 and bills itself as the largest consignment shop in historic Bardstown, with more than 5,000 square feet, per its Main Street listing. Expect name-brand clothing, shoes and purses up front and home decor and furniture throughout. It was named Best Consignment in the 2026 Best of Kentucky awards. Consigned goods must have been bought new within three years, so this is gently used rather than antique. Store hours are not published; consignment intake runs Tuesday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
The Cozy Cottage Boutique
At 210 N. Third St., the Cozy Cottage pairs boutique clothing and Kentucky-made gifts with antique, vintage and lightly used goods and farmhouse decor, as described in Visit Bardstown’s vintage scene roundup. Listed hours are Monday to Saturday, 10 to 5.
Worth a look if the door is open
These appear on current tourism listings, but recent activity could not be confirmed, so treat them as call-ahead stops:
| Shop | Address | Specialty | Listed hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Lucky Rabbit | 101 N. Third St. | Mid-century and modern furnishings, records, antiques, clothing | Tue-Sat, varies by day |
| Artist’s Barrel | 208 N. Third St. | Repurposed furniture, vintage quilts, horse-racing memorabilia | Mon-Sat 10-5, Sun 10-3 |
| Bourbon City Looney Soul | 226 N. Third St. | Vintage clothing from the 1970s to early 2000s, sneakers | Mon-Sat 11-7 |
Artist’s Barrel’s phone is (502) 331-6049. The others post on social media, so check there the morning you plan to go.
On the edge of town
Bardstown Peddlers Mall
At 1020 Granite Dr., east of downtown near John Rowan Boulevard, Peddlers Mall is a multi-vendor floor of vintage, antiques, new items, oddities, collectibles, furniture and clothing, part of a family-owned chain with 18 locations in four states. Listed hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily. Reviews run from “fun, nostalgic items and memories from childhood everywhere” to “looked like leftovers from a yard sale,” which is the vendor-mall experience in a sentence. Call (502) 348-1202 before you go; see its Visit Bardstown listing.
The Rusty Rooster
The Rusty Rooster at 620 Bloomfield Rd. (US 62) is easy to spot by its oversized rooster statues, and Visit Bardstown described a 10,000-square-foot showroom of antiques, vintage decor and farmhouse furniture “packed from floor to ceiling” in 2024. No recent hours or reviews turned up, so check its Facebook page before driving over.
Nettie Jarvis Antiques, Bloomfield
About 11 miles northeast in Bloomfield, Nettie Jarvis Antiques at 111 Taylorsville Rd. is a multi-level shop of about 5,000 square feet, stocked with everything from Derby cocktail glasses to museum-quality pieces, and it has a bourbon bar. Listed hours are Monday to Saturday 10 to 6 and Sunday 1 to 5; call (502) 252-9555 first. Pair it with a tasting at Springhill Winery on the same side of the county.
The Bardstown Antiques Show
The best single day for antiques is in April. The Bardstown Antiques Show held its 59th edition on April 10 and 11, 2026, at the Guthrie Opportunity Center, 900 Nutter Dr., with dealers from several states selling estate jewelry, art, primitive and European furniture, fine silver and advertising pieces, per Kentucky Living’s event page. Early-bird admission on the first day was $12 and good both days; second-day entry was $8. The Kentucky Standard’s coverage showed antique furniture and sewing machines drawing a crowd. Watch for 2027 dates in early spring; the 60th should be a big one.
What about the fall fair? The Bardstown Arts & Crafts Festival grew out of the old Arts, Crafts & Antiques Fair, but the 2026 festival page focuses on more than 250 artists’ booths and does not mention antiques. It is still a great weekend downtown, on Oct. 10 and 11, 2026. See our festival guide.
Names you may see in older guides
- Court Square Antiques, 101 W. Stephen Foster Ave., once praised as having “the best and oldest antiques” in town, no longer appears on current tourism or Main Street directories. Assume it is gone unless you see it open.
- Bardstown Antiques Gallery and Bardstown Traders Mall turn up in some listings, but nothing current confirms them.
Framing and displaying your finds
Gartland’s Art Sales at 105 W. Flaget Ave. has been family-owned since 1974 and does custom framing, including shadow boxes for bourbon bottles, quilts and memorabilia. Listed hours are weekdays 9:30 to 5:30 and Saturday until 2:30; call (502) 348-4150 to confirm.
Antiquing around the calendar
Spring brings the Antiques Show in April and the start of the farmers market season, a good combination for a Saturday. Fall is the busiest stretch: the Arts & Crafts Festival on the second weekend of October draws more than 30,000 people, so do your shop browsing on the Friday or the following week if you dislike crowds. Late November and December add Shop Small Saturday, when downtown shops open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Light Up Bardstown on the Friday after Thanksgiving. January and February are quiet, and some small shops trim hours, so call ahead in winter.
Tips for antiquing in Bardstown
- Start downtown on a Tuesday to Saturday morning; that is when the most doors are open.
- Measure before you leave home: doorways, the car’s cargo space and the wall you are shopping for.
- Ask about delivery or shipping for furniture before you pay.
- Be ready to negotiate politely at vendor malls, where booth holders set their own prices.
- Refuel between stops with a shake at the 1950s-style soda fountain in Hurst Drug Store, the most vintage lunch in town.
Pair it with
Round out the day with the rest of downtown’s shops in our shopping guide, a walk through the buildings themselves with our historic district architecture guide, and a night in a house full of period furniture from our list of historic inns and B&Bs. If Nettie Jarvis puts you in a driving mood, our day-trip routes map out longer loops from town.
