Grandma's Attic to celebrate 25 years in downtown Bemidji

May 11—BEMIDJI — Tammy Tisland noticed many antique malls when she traveled around the southern United States back in the 1990s. She thought her hometown of Bemidji should have one, too. So she started Grandma's Attic at 502 Third St. NW in a spot that once was home to a car dealership and later the VFW.

That was 25 years ago this month. Current owners Dave and Sarah Wagner and their fellow vendors will celebrate the milestone on Saturday, May 18.

"Antique malls are something you see every few miles in the south," Tisland recalled. "There's nothing like that here, so I decided to start one, knowing nothing about it at all. I was in the accounting and bookkeeping field.

She remembers sitting at her desk one day and asking herself if that's the job she really wanted.

"I said, 'nope,' and two weeks later I opened Grandma's Attic."

Tisland has since gone on to become an auctioneer, while the Wagners became the fourth owners of the antique mall in 2018.

There were six vendors when Grandma's Attic opened. "It was very empty," said Tisland, who owned the mall for its first five years. "But it filled pretty quickly and the waiting list grew."

The Wagners are one of 44 vendors today. They have multiple spaces in the building, as do some of the others.

"My parents were antique dealers, so I've seen a lot, and I kind of know what's good," Dave Wagner said. "And Sarah is just a natural. She researches everything, and she's really into the history part of it. All the vendors, we're all history buffs."

Dave said the antique sellers are catering to a younger crowd these days.

"We're definitely seeing a lot more 30-, 40-year-olds, even 20-year-olds," he said. "We're really seeing a change now. Vintage can include collectibles from the 1970s and t-shirts from the '80s now. So there's a really big range. It's always changing. Some things are hot and some things sell really well, and it just fluctuates."