Couple setting up English antique store

Donna M. Perry/Sun Journal

Bill Reed and Susan Hunnisett-Reed of Industry will open their Hunnisett Reed English Antiques on Thursday at 53 Main St. in Phillips. The open-style hutch they are looking at was made of oak with hand carvings in about 1740, Reed said.

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- Donna M. Perry/Sun Journal

Donna M. Perry/Sun Journal

An English slop bucket is featured on a mahogany wine table at the new Hunnisett Reed English Antiques store at 53 Main St. in Phillips.

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- Donna M. Perry/Sun Journal

Donna M. Perry/Sun Journal

Hunnisett Reed English Antiques at 53 Main St. in Phillips features an array of British furniture and porcelain.

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- Donna M. Perry/Sun Journal

PHILLIPS — Bill Reed and his wife, Susan Hunnisett-Reed, have a vision.

The couple, formerly of England, are renovating a 23-room Victorian house at 53 Main St. into a place where they will sell English antiques and offer English teas.

The house had been converted to four apartments, but they're restoring it to an earlier era. The main portion was built in 1860 and moved from Weld to its current spot in about 1900. The rest was added afterward, Reed said.

The old plaster has been removed from the walls. The tin ceilings will be restored. The woodwork will be replaced and the wide-board flooring reclaimed.

When it's done the house will provide a retail area of about 5,000 square feet for their Hunnisett Reed English Antique store, Reed said.

Meanwhile, the business will open Thursday, Oct. 22, in a large barn attached to the house.

The couple had owned a vacation home in Industry while living in England, and turned that into their permanent residence when they moved to Maine in late August.

The antique business is familiar to them. They were in it for 23 years in Britain.

They moved to Maine because it is a beautiful state, a slower-paced lifestyle and a great place to raise their children, Kathryn, 12, and Michael, 8, the couple said.

They chose Phillips to locate their business because "it's a nice New England town," said Reed, 52.

It's en route to Rangeley and the Saddleback Mountain ski area and close to Carrabassett Valley and Sugarloaf/USA, he said.

"When you walk into Phillips, there is pretty much nothing happening. I think there is tremendous potential," Reed said.

At least two of the rooms in the house will be set up as English tea rooms where traditional tea from England will be available to sip and enjoy, said Hunnisett-Reed, 49. There will be antique tables and chairs and bone china tea sets, to use and also for sale, she said.

All antiques will be imported by the couple from England.

In the barn, furniture is set up in rooms and in open space. There is an aged, oak dresser with hand carvings, made in about 1740, on which blue and white Staffordshire pottery and a Victorian willow pattern meat platter sit.

Bureaus, a wine table, large pitchers and bowls, embroidered linen napkins, a wardrobe, early Victorian mahogany chairs and salt-glaze stone jars are among the wares.

"We're going to have a range from earlier periods to 1930s and 1940s," Reed said.

"We'll have a range of prices from $5 to $2,500," Hunnisett-Reed said.

dperry@sunjournal.com