After a longer-than-anticipated closure, Houghton Hill reopens in midtown
Houghton Hill recently reopened at their new storefront, located at 341 E Benson Blvd. (Photo courtesy of Jessica Brunsting)
After nearly three months, a local home decor, antique and consignment shop has reopened at their new storefront in Anchorage — which is twice the size as their original space.
Owner Jessica Brunsting closed Houghton Hill in early February in preparation for the move and recently reopened the new store on April 28. She had planned on opening up her new storefront — located at 341 E Benson Blvd. — in mid-March, but COVID-19 mandates made that impossible.
A recent survey released by the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation gathered responses from over 250 participants; 16% of businesses said they are at risk of closing and 64% of respondents have seen a loss in revenue.
“We’ve been closed 90 percent of February. Obviously all of March, April, it’s been weeks — longer,” Brunsting said.
Brunsting opened Houghton Hill in 2002, initially making and supplying jewelry to local boutiques. In 2010, she partnered up with Second Run Consignment and they opened their second location at the D Street location. Four years later, Brunstring consolidated to a single location and took over the downtown space.
“I had been collecting antiques and home decor for 10 years in preparation of opening up a store,” Brunsting said. “Everything that I purchase I physically touch. The reason is I like to see that it’s a quality item, what’s the scale of the piece, the size, the material — that kind of stuff. I figured if I fall in love with it, I’m going to have a customer that’s going to fall in love with it.”
Houghton Hill sells products that are brand new or several hundreds of years old, ranging from 25 cents to $25,000 (Photo courtesy of Jessica Brunsting).
The extra space allows Brunsting to bring in new items and inventory.
“We’ve needed space for quite some time,” she said.
While it wasn’t the opening she initially envisioned, she says it gave her time to get the storefront prepared.
“It’s a little different as a business thinking you should be open and choosing not to versus you can’t open — nobody is expecting you to open,” Brunsting said.
Brunsting does several buying trips a year by traveling to different locations and sourcing products from outside of Alaska. There are items in the shop that range from 25 cents to $25,000, with some items being brand new or several hundred years old.
“As far as our business, I feel very fortunate, I feel very blessed,” Brunsting said. “And I think that with any circumstances, there are always positive things that come of it. I was able to move my entire business before all of this, I was able to have a lot of time in the store to do stuff. Everything is closed down, and I was able to not feel stressed to be open in a hurry. Those are all things that I feel are very positive.”
Currently, Houghton Hill is taking private shopping appointments to space out customers and give people more time in the store.
“We have so many customers that we have actual relationships with,” Brunsting said. “It was really, really really nice to be able to see their faces, even though it’s just their eyes because they had to wear a mask.”
Houghton Hill is open for appointments Tuesday through Saturday from 11 a.m. - 7 p.m.