story by LAURA LINDBLOM
After 16 years on Swanzey Street in Keystone , after a longer than anticipated hiatus , after many phone calls from devoted customers and friends wondering when and if the beloved antique shop was going to reopen , Westly Parker and Dennis Kling have finally flung wide the doors to the new location of Holy Terror Antiques . Old Hill City Road somehow seems an appropriate place to house this iconic fixture of the Keystone area . It ’ s an easy 2.6 miles west of Keystone proper , tucked away a little off the road under a canopy of pines , in a renovated warehouse .
“ We weren ’ t really ready to open and we ’ re doing what ’ s called a soft opening ,” Dennis explained . “ We weren ’ t ready but we just decided we couldn ’ t go another year . We got calls from customers every day , and we kept saying we ’ d be open in a month or two , and when it came to May or June , I started saying that I didn ’ t know when we were going to open . We hit July 1 , and we just had to open .”
After Rushmore Cave bought the Holy Terror building in 2021 , Dennis and Westly went to work packing up their 6,000 square foot store . It was just the two of them , starting in October of that year , and progress was agonizingly slow . Where do you even start ? It is no small task to pack up an antique shop of that size , while continuing to do business with customers . Finally , in early December , ten kind and enthusiastic friends of theirs showed up ready to go to work .
“ We ’ re here to get you packed ,” they said , and progress happened fast . “ They had young guys with them that had the muscle to do it ,” Dennis said . “ Everything we had put into that store had somehow gotten five times heavier in sixteen years !” They finally got out of the old location on December 20 , 2021 .
Last year was a wild year . The warehouse , which had been an outpost of sorts of their antique operation , required extensive remodeling to become an antique store . A few items were hired out , including the front porch , a deck , and a new roof , giving them the framework for the rest of what needed to happen . Seasoned customers will notice many nods to their previous establishment in the work Dennis and Westly have accomplished in this new location . They tore out thousands of square feet of carpet and put in 3,400 beautiful square feet of oak flooring , reminiscent of the pine flooring in their old building , and Dennis also noted , “ We got the doors from the Holy Terror building that [ Rushmore Cave ] took out …. We ’ re recycling a lot of things , and we ’ re doing all the work ourselves .”
A handful of cargo containers behind the shop house the bulk of the antiques at this time , and that has presented its own challenges when it comes to stocking the new store . “ Working out of the cargo containers , everything is stacked floor to ceiling , so you can ’ t just go in and take what you want ,” Westly said . They get what they get , or have to dig .
But little by little it has all come together with exciting plans on the horizon . The back of the store remains unfinished , but the brick façade suggests the kitchen area they intend to create , centered around a Granite Ware stove , displaying their collection of cast iron and Granite Ware dishes .
Their next big project is opening up their downstairs for more retail space . “ Eventually we will add another 1,200 square feet downstairs for furniture and larger items , but that ’ s a year or two off ,” Dennis said , and noted that they have a woodshop in the basement as well where they are able to do refinishing work .
Antiques have been all or a part of their livelihoods for more than forty years , since their first antique shop they opened together back in the 1970 ’ s in California , when they “ lived with the antiques ” in a school bus adjacent to their store . “ We were hippies ,” Dennis said , almost apologetically . “ We ’ re still hippies ,” Westly cut in . “ Just old ones .” But interest in antiques predates even their first store . “ I started buying and selling when I was sixteen ,” Dennis said , “ and when I first started , I went to all the antique shops , because I couldn ’ t afford the antique books , but I could walk through the antique shops and look at stuff and see [ how things were priced ]. I got a lot of my education just going in other shops .”
In 1982 , Dennis and Westly began to spend their summers in Keystone working at the Emporium , leading to a friendship and eventually a partnership with Pam Brodine , the owner of the Emporium . Westly made and sold signs on the boardwalk in Keystone , and Dennis worked for Pam , helping her open an antique shop called “ Pam ’ s Back Room ,” in the back of the Emporium . “ She always had antiques in there ; she loved antiques . But after she passed [ in 2009 ], all the antiques disappeared .”
“ In ‘ 89 , we went to an auction in Rockerville , as they auctioned off Rockerville , and there was a line of shops across the street from the Gaslight ,” Westly said . “ It was full of antiques ,” Dennis recalled . “ We went to this auction ,” Westly continued , “ and halfway through it they stopped selling antiques and sold the property , and we put our hand up one too many times and bought the Gaslight .”
The Gaslight had been closed for seven years prior to Westly and Dennis purchasing the property and their desire to re-create the destination Rockerville had been led them to accomplish some mind-boggling renovations , including putting an antique shop in the 3,000 square foot dance hall , turning a bar into a soda fountain , and using an antique bean counter , also purchased at the Rockerville auction , as the centerpiece display of the candy shop .
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