Fahey: Original owner of Legends Sports Gallery wants customers to 'Reminisce' with new store in Old Town Bluffton
Jerry Glenn knows the details behind every historic photo, autographed memorabilia or sports team featured at Legends Sports Gallery.
The Hilton Head Island store is stocked with heritage banners, rare and signed photos, framed collectibles, award-winning food products, French soaps, adult coloring books and vintage-style dog and cat artwork.
It's an eclectic emporium, to say the least.
But every item has been carefully hand-picked by Glenn, the 84-year-old original owner.
Legends -- now owned by Glenn's daughter, Lori -- was one of the first stores at Main Street Village.
"We were the third one to open here," he said.
That was 28 years ago. And while the shopping center has been a good home for the store, it will be closing at the plaza Dec. 31.
"We are closing because we moved to Bluffton (to live)," Glenn said. The store will be seven miles away from home instead of 14 miles away.
He cited Old Town Bluffton's "booming growth" as another incentive to relocate.
Oh, and then there's the problem of the sun.
"It's blinding here in the mornings and the evenings," he said.
The new store, planned for a yet-to-be-constructed building in the Promenade, is expected to open in February and will be very similar to Legends, Glenn said. Inventory will include sports memorabilia and decor, the dog and cat artwork, gourmet food items, French soaps and unique gifts. There will also be more of an emphasis on nostalgic items that feature pop culture icons such as the Beatles and "I Love Lucy."
The store will be an "offshoot of the Cinnamon Bear days," Glenn said. He was the original owner of the country store but sold it 15 years ago.
The retailer will also have a new moniker when it moves to the Promenade.
"All items will encourage shoppers to reminisce on the past," Glenn said. "Therefore, the shop will be named Reminisce."
Glenn employed thorough research before settling on a name to make sure it was unique.
"There's only one other shop in America with that name," he said.
That same desire to be one-of-a-kind drives the inventory at the emporium.
Before committing to a product, Glenn calls the supplier to ask who in the Southeast sells it.
If it's not widely distributed -- or, preferably, distributed at all -- he'll order it. But only then.
Glenn and his wife, Audrey, have collected antiques for years. They attend shows to try out award-winning foods.
But only the most unique products are chosen, and whatever they choose usually flies off the shelves.
"A customer came in today and bought them all," he said, gesturing to a spot where tiramisu biscuits imported from Holland sat earlier that day.
A curator at Asheville, N.C.-based Biltmore Estate sought the couple's assistance many years ago to acquire antiques for several of the rooms in the house.
"She was very strict about getting items that were pre-1923," Glenn said.
One of his most memorable finds for Biltmore came from an unexpected place.
"We went into a junk shop in Tennessee and found 20 Clorox bottles," he said. They were brown glass bottles, fully intact.
"They had the old labels. We shipped them to (the curator) but she said they had screw caps on them and those weren't invented until 1927.
"So," Glenn said, "we got corks for them and turned a negative into a positive."
Now, those vintage Clorox bottles sit front and center in the estate's laundry room.
Glenn's long career of researching history, acquiring treasures and befriending people at antiques and food shows has led to the quirky product line available at Legends Sports Gallery, all of which will transfer to Reminisce once it opens in Bluffton.
For Glenn, though, he's just enjoying life.
"In 84 years," he said, "you get to do a lot."
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Follow reporter Ashley Fahey at twitter.com/IPBG_Ashley.
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This story was originally published November 12, 2015 at 6:31 PM with the headline "Fahey: Original owner of Legends Sports Gallery wants customers to 'Reminisce' with new store in Old Town Bluffton."