Vintage trailers selling vintage finds in Georgetown

“Trailer-park trash” doesn’t mean what it used to. 

Bruce and Shannon Andersen, married artists who reside in Georgetown, purchased their first vintage trailer nearly eight years ago with hopes of someday creating a mobile gallery. A couple years ago, the duo took their storefront gallery, now the Frida Trailer Gallery, on wheels and founded the Georgetown Trailer Park Mall. 

It’s a two-sided row of vintage trailers — some the iconic Airstream-style, rounded aluminum, and others painted over in various colors. The trailers are set on gravel in a tucked-away alley off Airport Way South, and they operate as small stores for assorted vintage treasures, art and collectables.

Liz Ophoven, a Georgetown local who runs Bitsy Shop, one of the trailer stores, said that calling the items for sale “antiques” is not quite accurate. 

“The theme here is cool things: interior, vintage, unique and handmade,” she said. “You can find spruced-up furniture and vintage finds that are local, for sure.” 

Ophoven, who runs her shop with another local, Tabitha Pomeroy, said that many of the mall vendors have consigners and collectors who help provide merchandise to their stores.

Unique finds

The mall is the only one of its kind in Seattle. Shannon Andersen hails from Austin, Texas, where trailer-park malls are apparently a common attraction. The Andersens own a handful of the trailers in the Georgetown mall. They use a few for their own retail and rent out the rest to vendors. 

Another vendor, Nate Hamilton, said, “I was a Dumpster diver as a kid in California, so it’s weird.… This has always been a hobby.” 

As a bartender in Fremont, Hamilton regularly picked up items he liked from the Fremont Sunday Market. All his finds have accumulated, and now he has a place to sell them. Hamilton describes the atmosphere in the mall as low-key; he calls his trailer Clyde & Son Salvage.

The mall isn’t highly advertised, and the clientele varies. Ophoven said, “It’s all word-of-mouth, and we get a combination of locals who come here for social reasons or people who come looking for specifics.”

The mall opens as the Trailer Park Market every Saturday at 947 South Doris St., and winter hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The Trailer Park Mall is also open during the Georgetown Art Attack! local art walk, which takes place the second Saturday of the month. The next Art Attack! takes place Saturday, March 10, from 6 to 9 p.m. For more information, visit Georgetowntrailerpark.com.