Local business repurposes historic Mat-Maid building

PALMER — A local antique and repurposing shop, Alaska Picker, recently relocated to downtown Palmer to a historic building built in 1957 by Matanuska Maid, which originally used it for cold storage.

Alaska Picker was previously on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway, but co-owner Kelly Turney, who feels most at home in Palmer, believes moving his business will help revive some of the oldest parts of town.

“I think the best part about this building and the move is the revitalization of downtown,” he said, “This has been kind of a sore spot with a lot of the old timers and a lot of folks in town…that this is probably the most recognizable block in the city and nothing’s been done with it in years.”

Much restoration of the building had to be completed before the recent reopening of Alaska Picker. The building and outside yard had to be thoroughly cleaned, the entire interior painted, and the floor pressure washed and sealed.

Co-owners of the shop, Turney and Becky Green, officially started the business in 2011 when they realized they could make a living off of the garage sale items they were buying and reselling.

“If you had asked me seven years ago if it would have happened I would have told you no,” Turney said about the progress of Alaska Picker. “You can definitely see and feel the growth over time.”

For Turney, hunting for old objects was a way of life for him as a child.

“Me and my mom and my sister used to go to the flea markets and go (to garage sales) and stuff like that since I was little,” he said

Alaska Picker finds its treasures from all over the state in places like Cordova, Dutch Harbor and Tok. Recently Turney found an old six-foot in diameter KFC bucket in the middle of the woods in Healy.

“Each part of Alaska kind of has its own slice of cool that you can bring back,” he said, “I just enjoy the hunt of finding it. Having the store and selling it…is kind of the necessary evil.”

He usually hears about the items through word of mouth, but stresses the importance of finding the owner of a property before taking objects, even if the location seems uninhabited.

An abandoned military base owned by the Aleut Corporation on the island of Adak was one of Alaska Picker’s latest hauls. They went out to the dilapidated base two different times, the first to salvage furniture from about 35 different buildings, and the second to ship the findings back to Palmer. The customer reception of the pieces was very positive, and within seven weeks most of the Adak artifacts were sold.

“Overall I think it was the craziest thing logistically, and nobody has ever done it before and I think that’s why I wanted to do it,” said Turney.

Alaska Picker finds inventory statewide, and will sometimes bring unusual things up from the rest of the United States. For those looking to sell them antiques, they will not buy guns, knives, gold or silver jewelry or Alaska Native artifacts due to their tendency to invite theft.