CANOGA PARK : Antique Row Is Hard Hit as Bricks Fall

Although earthquake damage was relatively light in Canoga Park, the Jan. 17 temblor took a toll on what some consider the community’s best asset--the Sherman Way antique district.

Nearly every building has been condemned in the antique mall on Sherman Way between De Soto Avenue and Topanga Canyon Boulevard. More than a dozen antique shops in the area have been forced to close, and numerous vendors and cooperatives who rented space within them are also out of business, said Stan Goldman, owner of Turn of the Century Antiques and a founding merchant of “Antique Row.”

Many of the shops were housed in one two-story brick building. Other stores occupied neighboring older brick structures. The brick buildings gave Antique Row both character and fragility.

“Brick is brick, and brick moves,” said Goldman.

The antique merchants will meet this week to discuss options. Hopefully, that won’t mean moving out of the area, Goldman said. But many antique vendors may not have the luxury of waiting until the buildings are fixed, and may choose to relocate, he added.

If that happens, it would be bad news for Canoga Park, which has relied on antique shops to help preserve its retail shopping core. At a time when outlying malls were draining the area of viable businesses, antiques came in and filled the gap. The process, which took nearly 20 years, may have been reversed in a single night by the quake, Goldman said.

“At one time, downtown Canoga Park was dying. Antiques really brought it back to life again,” he said. “It’s like a little family--we would like to keep it together.” The damage to Antique Row is a blow to community leaders, who fear a neighborhood decline without it.

“I feel very dismal as far as businesses goes,” said Aline Hausman, executive director of the local Chamber of Commerce. “We were hurting already.”

Elsewhere in Canoga Park, businesses were resuming normal operations. The two closest malls, Topanga Plaza and Fallbrook Mall, have partially reopened. Topanga Plaza’s parking lots were filled over the weekend as shoppers returned to the damaged mall.